Awoken
by HezuKame
Summary: Emery Yates and Helena Sullivan embark on a journey to become powerful warlocks at the Magic Association and Science Institution to discover the relationship between magic and science. N.B. from the author: This story is being rewritten and transferred to 'The Awoken', when the rewrite is done this book will be deleted. Please see 'The Awoken' to continue reading.
1. Chapter 1: School

_1525 Monday 26th May 2025_

"A three, a bloody three." Emery said while shaking his head in disbelieve.

"How do you get a three, you're straight sevens normally." Helena replied.

"Chucked it together last minute, apparently got some bad spelling and grammar." Emery sighed as he looked at his reflection in the window.

A smartly dressed year eleven wearing a shirt, tie and blazer, longish shaggy brown hair and blue greyish eyes. Helena was wearing a blouse and tie, green eyes and slightly shorter brown hair than Emery.

"Well well, you know who won't be doing last minute dot com again, don't ya." Helena giggled fiendishly.

"How about we go to Tesco's before we go back to mine." Emery asked, ignoring Helena's last comment.

"Any particular reason?" Helena asked back.

"I'm thinking about cooking dinner and need some supplies." Emery replied.

"Fair enough." Helena said as the final bell rang.

Everyone stood up and collected their bags before leaving the classroom. As Emery and Helena walked to Tesco's, which was a five-minute walk from their school, Emery felt like he was being followed, but quickly dismissed it as paranoia. In Tesco's down the world foods aisle, Emery was looking at some sushi rice, rice wine vinegar, mirin and nori for rice balls when Emery noticed a glimmer of light out the corner of his eye. He turned to look at the light, it appeared to be coming out of thin air. He instinctively put out his hand.

"Reveal hidden light." Emery said.

A bright flash of light illuminated the aisle, a tall beefy man wearing a black leather jacket, black shirt and black jeans appeared.

"Hello, Emery." The man said.

Emery and Helena were both startled and looked at each other confused.

"Hi, and you are?" Emery asked.

"Cairne, Julius Cairne. My colleagues call me Cairne, but you can call me by either of my names." Julius explained.

"So, Julius, why have you been following me today?" Emery asked realising that his suspicions of being followed were correct.

"Ahh, now that will take some explaining." Julius replied.

"Please continue." Emery said.

"To put things shortly I am on a recruitment mission. You and Helena are my, potential recruits." Julius explained.

"To recruit us for what?" Emery asked.

"Better question, do you know what you have just done?" Julius asked back.

"I don't know, it seemed like, magic." Emery said confused.

"Bingo." Julius smiled.

"So what you're saying is that my best friend just used magic to, reveal hidden light was it?" Helena asked.

"Yes, he did." Julius replied.

"God today just got exciting." Helena beamed.

"Exciting it got indeed." Julius smiled. "Well, I better give you a tour of your potential place of work and study. If you would both take my arm we will teleport there.

Emery and Helena placed their hands on Julius' arm and they disappeared in a flash of light. In what seemed like a split second the trio was outside a massive glass building in a field off of the A689, near Brunstock in Cumbria. The building had MASI in huge frosted letters on the front, above the entrance.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting this." Emery gawped.

"It does take the breath away a bit, doesn't it." Julius said.

"I'll say." Helena said.

The trio walked into the building and was greeted by a very smartly dressed young lady wearing a grey suit, white blouse and matching wedges.

"Welcome to MASI." The lady smiled.

"Hi, Veronica. Could you let Zak know that we are here." Julius asked.

"Of course Cairne, anything else." Veronica replied.

"Yes, we also need a clean up in Tesco's, Whitfield, Dover, Kent." Julius said.

"I'll get right on it." Veronica said.

"So, who is Zak Julius?" Emery asked.

"Zak is the viceroy of the MASI British branch. Which means that he is the boss." Julius explained. "He will have an informal chat with you both and brief you on what MASI is all about and what your prospects are. How are you feeling Emery?"

"A bit ill, but I'll be fine, I think." Emery replied.

"To be expected as it is probably the first time you have used magic." Julius said.

"Well hello you two, Cairne." A middle-aged man said.

Zak had silver hair, purple eyes and was wearing a black and red robe and a black suit.

"Emery, Helena, this is Zak."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you both at last." Zak beamed. "Shall we go to the canteen and have a cup of tea."

They walked to the canteen, which was a short walk down the northeast wing of the building. They each got a cup of tea except for Julius who settled for a coffee instead and sat down at one of the empty tables.

"So, MASI, the Magic Association and Science Institute or the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology depending on whom you are addressing. Here at MASI, we enforce the law, magical law to be exact, which is an extension on general law set by the government. Only the highest members of the governments worldwide know of MASI's existence and leave the control of magical society to us, as it has been for over a century." Zak explained.

"So, why are me and Emery here. I mean why pick us to work for you when we have barely finished school." Helena asked.

"You both have very high spiritual pressures which are required for using magic. Also, your academic results are both exemplary in both science and IT which are a requirement for studying and working at MASI. As for accepting you before you finish school that is down to Emery's episode in Tesco's today. We think you are both ready now that you know about us. If you do decide to join us then it will be immediately subject to the aptitude test, which is our equivalent to an entrance exam. Your school will be notified of the transfer which will be under a government order, so they can't refuse." Zak explained.

"I will take you to see your headmistress shortly to tell her of your transfer if you both accept." Julius explained.

"Why wouldn't we." Emery said enthusiastically.

"You don't have to ask us twice, you can't get rid of us now." Helena beamed.

"Good, I'm glad we have you on board." Zak smiled.

"Right then, let's get outside so we can teleport to your school." Julius said.

Emery, Helena, and Julius teleported just outside the school gate, no one was around to see though. They walked through the main building towards the headmistress' office. Julius knocked on the door.

"Come in." A voice said on the other side of the door.  
The trio walked in and took seats.

"Who are you?" The headmistress asked acerbically.

"My name is Julius Cairne and I am from the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology, I am here regarding these two students of yours who have expressed their wishes to transfer from Christ Church Academy to MASI, effective from tomorrow." Julius explained.

"I can't allow this, you just waltz into my office and tell me that you're poaching two of my best students." The headmistress replied flustered.

"It is the end of the school year, to my knowledge their final subject is science yes?" Julius asked.

"Well, yes it is. But why are you trying to enrol them before the end of the term?" The headmistress asked.

"Because this is a work opportunity as well as a learning opportunity. We don't have school terms our learning is continuous throughout your school holidays except for Christmas. And Emery and Helena have already said that they wish to transfer immediately, this meeting with you is merely a formality as we have governmental rights to, poach as you put it, from any school within the UK." Julius explains.

"Well do you two agree to this." The headmistress asked.

"We do." Emery and Helena said in unison.

"Well then, it seems I have no other choice. I will expect an email confirming this transfer in the morning, no later than nine hundred. Good day to you all and good luck you two." The headmistress said.

The trio stood up and left the headmistress' office. Julius made sure that the coast was clear and teleported them back to MASI.

"First things first, we need you both using magic so we will go to gymnasium one which is just off from the canteen and do some sparring." Julius explained.

The trio walked into gymnasium one which was a huge white void with a twenty-five-metre radius from floor to ceiling and walls.

"Right then, let's start with Helena. You haven't used magic before so we'll start with some basics. Emery, can you copy me please?" Julius asked

Julius created a ki blast, a ball of energy and light. Emery copied the technique with ease.

"Good, now you are going to throw the ki blast at Helena, and Helena, you're going to catch it." Julius explained.

Emery threw the ki blast at Helena, but Helena absorbed it rather than catching it.

"Okay Helena, what did you feel when you absorbed that ki blast." Julius asked.

"I felt like I got a boost from it and I think that I can recreate that ki blast." Helena replied.

"Then please do recreate the ki blast." Julius responded.

Helena created a ki blast, but it was unstable and disintegrated.

"It's fine, try again, but concentrate harder on the ki blast." Julius said.

Helena tried again, this time she successfully created a stable ki blast and tossed it at Emery. Emery caught it and thrown it back to Helena, she caught it without absorbing it this time.

"Well done. Now I'm going to teach you both some martial arts." Julius said.

Julius started by teaching Emery and Helena some punches and kicks including a standing roundhouse kick. Emery and Helena engaged in battle, Emery starting with two punches and a roundhouse kick in Helena's abdomen. Helena recovered and gathered a ki blast in her hand and punched Emery knocking him flying across the gymnasium.

"Okay, now I'm going to teach you self acceleration." Julius said.

Julius quickly demonstrated self acceleration by doubling back and running with tremendous speed and precision across the gymnasium.

"Now you two have a go." Julius said.

Helena tried first, she took a few steps back and started running. She started off running normally, but the self acceleration kicked in and she zoomed, stopping just shy of the wall. Meanwhile, Zak had sat down in the observation room above the gymnasium to watch Emery and Helena practice. Emery then tried self acceleration, he got a running start then he vanished. Suddenly a loud thud echoed across the gymnasium and Emery was on the floor bleeding heavily. Helena and Julius rushed over, but then a bright light appeared over Emery.

"Self-repair auto start." Emery croaked.

All Emery could see was white, then he started to see strings of characters in front of him, it was his own subatomic changelog.

"Identifying corrupted sequence, rewinding changelog back fifteen seconds just before impact, overwriting corrupted sequence with specified data. Self-repair complete." Emery said

Emery got up off of the floor and the blood that was once there was gone. Helena and Julius were standing next to Emery, Helena on the verge of tears.

"We thought you'd just killed yourself you dum dum. Helena said while punching Emery's shoulder.

"I thought I did too." Emery said wearily.

Zak was standing at the door of the gymnasium.

"Do you know what you have just done Emery?" Zak asked.

"I rewrote my own subatomic changelog so the injury had never happened." Emery replied.

"Yes you did, are you aware though that subatomic changelog rewriting is very advanced magic?" Zak asked.

"No, I didn't" Emery replied.

Zak got out his tablet computer and swiped a card on it.

"Here take this." Zak said handing Emery the tablet and the card he swiped.

_Emery Yates Employee number: 00002C87D_

_Granting Elevated Privileges for Medical Role._

_Privileges Entail: Unrestricted Sparring for any party when YOU are present in that Gymnasium; Access to all areas of any MASI building; Access to Medical _

_Laboratories 1, 2 and 5; Access to Library restricted sections 1, 2, 3, 5 & 7._

_Please swipe _ID_ card to accept._

"Thank you, Zak." Emery beamed.

"These privileges come with a few catches, one, you must not abuse these privileges, two, you must take up medical training with Doctor Valery, three, due to the consequences of rewriting the subatomic changelog you are not obligated to use it for anyone else other than yourself, if this is the case then you cannot allow potentially lethal sparring sessions on your watch, otherwise you may allow such sparring sessions providing that you will selflessly use your gift to heal those with otherwise life-threatening injuries. Understood?" Zak asked.

"I understand the consequences of rewriting subatomic changelogs and will selflessly use my gift to help those in need of it, always." Emery said proudly.

"I appreciate that." Zak said. "Helena this card is yours." Zak said handing the card to Helena and taking back the tablet from Emery.

"Okay, Zak have you got the brochure for the parents?" Julius asked.

"Yes, here it is." Zak said handing over the brochure to Julius.

"We should tell your parents and bring them here to brief them." Julius said

"How do we do that?." Emery asked. "Hey mum just got accepted for magic high and got a job as a medic. I don't think that will wash somehow." Emery said sarcastically.

"Ahh, that's what the brochure is for, take a look." Julius explained.

Emery and Helena looked at the brochure and it was changing from Magi Academy to Magic Association before their eyes.

"So this brochure, it has magical properties then" Helena statemented.

"Yes, if any one of your parents has a magical lineage is should break the perception filter so that both copies can be read by choice. And if they comment on it it will break the perception filter completely and all your parents will be able to read both copies." Julius explained.

Emery, Helena, and Julius teleported outside Emery's house. Julius knocked on the door and Emery's mum answered the door.

"Yes." Emery's mum said.

"Mrs. Yates, I'm here about your son and his friend Helena." Julius said while handing over his MASI ID card. "I am pleased to inform you that Emery and Helena have been accepted to study and work at the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology."

"You'd better come in then. You can call me Eliza." Eliza said.

Emery's dad Eral and Helena's parents Susan and John were sat in the living room around the coffee table. Julius took a seat next to Susan and John and handed out the brochure to Eliza.

"As I have just explained to Eliza, Emery and Helena have been accepted to study and work at the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology. I have come to explain what happens next and when they will start." Julius explained.

"This can't be right, the brochure is changing the text." Eliza said confused.

Emery and Helena looked at each other and smiled.

"It says the Magic Association and Science Institution, but it also says the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology in the same spot." Eliza said.

"They are both right, you see the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology is our public face but also true, Magi as in not Maggie but Magic. MASI is the government for those who possess magic, like your children. We train them in various fields of magic give them A-Levels and Degrees in whatever subjects they want and give them a job. Work while they study. Due to Emery's own magical capabilities, he has already been given a medical role in MASI." Julius explained.

"So let me get this straight, you want our kids to train as magicians?" Susan asked confused.

"Yes, but don't confuse magician with the magic tricks that you see performed on stage, this magic is scientific in nature. And we prefer the term warlock." Julius explained.

"I see." Eral said.

"When will they start." John asked.

"Tomorrow. They will do their aptitude test and then we will settle them into a house share in Carlisle, Cumbria. MASI is near Brunstock which is a ten-minute drive from Carlisle." Julius explained.

"Cumbria?" Eliza said shocked. "That's the other end of the country."

"Yes, but when you're a warlock Cumbria is only ten seconds away." Julius said.

"Shut up." Susan laughed.

"Really, may I take you all there so that you can see for yourself?" Julius asked, a bit worried about what the answer may be.

"Okay, humour us." Eral said. "Take us to Cumbria in ten seconds as you said."

"Okay then." Julius said nodding Emery and Helena over. "Everyone please stand up and place a hand in the middle all touching mine. Teleport."

Within a few seconds Eliza, Emery, Eral, Helena, John, and Susan were standing outside the MASI building.

"I eat my words." Susan chuckled. "You weren't joking."

"Right." Julius said as the group walked into the building. "Zak is going to whisk the parents off to brief them on our procedures and your care package, I will brief you on your care package and take you both to see the Doc."

Emery, Helena, and Julius split up from the parents and walked to the medical wing on the first floor, northeast wing.

"So your care package includes a two bed fully furnished house that you both share, a car, a shared bank account that you both have a card each with Natwest that is already set up and funded with enough money to pay the bills, a laptop slash tablet and a mobile phone each for your work and a CASTE each of your own designs." Julius explained.

"What's a CASTE?" Helena asked.

"A Cast Assisting Sacchion Technology Embedded device." Julius explained.

"Sacchion, that's a subatomic particle right?" Emery asked.

"Yes, it is." Julius smiled. "You're catching on fast."

"It kind of makes sense to me, I don't know how to explain it." Emery said.

"Well, we're here." Julius said. "Hey Doc, got some patients for ya."

"Ahh, Emery Yates and Helena Sullivan, a pleasure it is to finally meet you." The Doc said enthusiastically. "My name is Doctor Geoff Valery. Let's get biometrics out the way then, Emery please step into the scanner."

Emery stepped into the scanner as it made a whirring noise.

"Oh my god, Cairne, three million sacchion cycles per second." The Doc said shocked.

"Is that bad." Emery asked concerned.

"Yes and no." Julius said "Three million SCPS is very high, the highest I've ever heard of let alone seen. It will make training you difficult." Julius explained. "Helena next.

Helena stepped into the scanner.

"two hundred thousand SCPS." The Doc said.

"Good, we can easily work with that." Julius said.

"All done." The Doc said. "Now Emery I hear that you can rewrite subatomic changelogs and that you have been assigned to me for training. Our schedule will be nineteen hundred hours till twenty one hundred every day starting tomorrow okay."

"Got it Doc." Emery said.

"Okay then, let's go and meet the parents." Julius said.

The trio walks back to the entrance to meet up with Eliza, Eral, John, Susan, and Zak.

"Hey, mum." Emery said.

"Hi darling, so I hear that you're moving in with Helena tomorrow." Eliza said.

"Yeah, we're fully kitted out so don't you worry." Emery said as his mum ruffled his hair.

"Right, so Helena is going to go back to hers to collect her belongings and she will be staying at ours tonight." Eliza said.

"Cool cool." Emery said.

"Just as a reminder any reference to MASI must be to the Magi Academy of Science and Information technology and that you must not tell anyone of our true nature." Zak explained.

Julius teleported the group back to Emery's house and said goodbye for the day. Helena got back to Emery's house with a butt load of stuff. Emery had also packed for tomorrow. Eliza finally told Emery and Helena to go to bed as they had an early start.


	2. Chapter 2: Boys and their toys

0745 Tuesday 27th May 2025

"Morning Helena." Emery smiled. "Looking forward to today?"

"Hell yeah." Helena said while sipping a cup of tea. "Wish Julius would hurry it up."

"He's only going to be five-minutes Helena." Emery said.

"I know but it feels like an eternity." Helena groaned.

"Morning you two." Eliza smiled. "You sure everything is packed up and ready for Julius?"

"Yeah." Emery and Helena said in unison.

They heard a knock on the window. Eliza went to the door and answered, it was Julius.

"Hi Julius." Eliza said.

"Hi Eliza, are they ready?" Julius asked.

"They are, and eager." Eliza giggled.

Julius walked into the house.

"Right then you two, get your stuff, and we'll get going." Julius smiled.

Emery and Helena said goodbye to Eliza and the trio teleported to the MASI entrance. They walked to an empty utility cupboard where Julius placed Emery's and Helena's stuff, and then locked it with his ID card.

"Right then, let's go and get some breakfast and a cup of coffee." Julius said enthusiastically.

The trio walked to the canteen and each got fry ups and a cup of tea, except for Julius who settled for a cup of coffee instead. They talked while they ate about the aptitude test.

"So we need to remember the law of equivalent exchange which requires us to have an object with enough mass to turn it into something else of the same mass." Helena said.

"Yes, that's right." Julius replied.

"And that the sacchions are what do the magic we just control them." Emery said.

"Yes, controlling the sacchions energy output and their frequency is what defines magic." Julius replied. "Also note that the energy conservation law dictates that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it is merely changed from one state to another. You have all that you need for the aptitude test, speaking of which we should be going to it now."

Emery and Helena attended and completed their aptitude tests and were sparring in gymnasium one. Emery narrowly avoided a high energy ki blast from Helena, then used self acceleration to gain on her and performed three self accelerated punches and a kick. Helena doubled over then swept her leg around Emery's ankle and pulled it from under him knocking him to the ground. Emery retaliated by clapping his hands creating a shock wave that knocked Helena to the floor.

"Shall we call it a day Emery, we have been at this for an hour and I think we drew." Helena puffed.

"Yeah, let's call it a day." Emery said wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

"Well, that was interesting, to say the least." Julius smiled.

"Jesus, don't scare the crap out of me Julius." Emery gasped.

"Sorry, but I got your test results and both of you passed with flying colours." Julius said. "So let's go and see your new accommodation."

The trio collected Emery's and Helena's stuff and walked outside MASI and teleported to the house in Carlisle. It was a luxurious semi-detached house with a Nissan Leaf parked on the drive.

"Wow, this is so cool." Helena said jumping up and down in excitement.

"Emery is the one with the driver's license so he will be the owner of the car and the sole driver until you pass your test Helena." Julius said. "Shall we go in then."

"Uh, yeah." Emery said.

The trio walked into the house and started with the living room. There was a forty-inch LED TV on the wall, a leather suite and a matt glass coffee table. In the kitchen, there was an electric hob and oven, a new fridge-freezer, washing machine and a tumble drier.

"You do need to do a shop to stock the fridge, freezer, and cupboards. In the meanwhile you can eat at MASI." Julius said.

Next, the trio moved to the bedrooms. The bedrooms each had a thirty-two-inch flat screen on a desk in front of a double bed. there was also a wardrobe, two chests of draws and a bedside table with a mirror slash alarm clock perched on top. On the beds, there was a laptop slash tablet and a mobile phone.

"Please take the laptops and mobile phones and set them up, they have sim cards already in them and they work on any network in range so you should have no problem with cell coverage. The phones use MASI's own firmware but android apps will work on them just fine." Julius explained. "Here are the keys to the property and your bedrooms, Emery your set has the car key on it so try out the bedroom key in the lock to work out which one is yours. When you're both done we will drive back to MASI, and Emery, you're driving."

The trio drove down the A689 towards Brunstock to get to MASI. After a few minutes, they arrived. Emery parked the car in one of the staff parking spaces, then the trio got out of the car and started walking to towards the canteen.

"Emery, I have an issue that I have been trying to resolve for some time. We need a new resource builder but currently, it is fueled by water which makes us reluctant to use it because of the water bill. Do you have any suggestions on how we can solve this issue?" Julius asked.

Emery got out his tablet and opened up his drawing app.

"Right, so if you take a look at this I can demonstrate how to solve this problem. I have a possible magic sequence that could provide storage and convert solid matter, specifically to convert waste products into water. This way we won't have to change the design of the resource builder too much. You with me so far?" Emery asked.

"Yes, continue." Julius said.

"The plan would be to install a capture unit on the sewer line and also a dumping ground for other refuse waste where it can be converted into water, stored and used for the resource builder. If we go to the resource builder I can build a schematic and build the necessary equipment." Emery explained.

"Let's do it." Julius said enthusiastically.

The trio walked to the resource builder in the southwest wing, doubling back on themselves.

"Right, what do I do here Julius." Emery asked.

"Firstly lie down on the bed and then a heads up display (HUD) should appear." Julius explained.

"Got the HUD, ahh. So this is how you do it." Emery smiled. "Just setting up the necessary components for the design and build."

Emery started with the connection to the sewer line and then proceeded to design the matter converter CASTE and magic sequence. Next Emery designed the storage tank that consisted of a one-metre cubed box that was a CASTE device, but the magic sequence was trickier than he thought. He needed to create a magic sequence that opens and sustains an artificial dimension that allows input and output but is not a bottomless pit. After some playing around he settled on a one-kilometre cubed dimension which was more than enough to store water for the resource builder. Finally, he started on the resource builder itself.

"Do we have a spare room of at least ten by five metres Julius?" Emery asked.

"Yes in one of the basement levels on the outer wall." Julius replied.

"Good, that means that my design will work." Emery replied enthusiastically.

Emery set the parameters of the resource builder to be an L shape, five by two by ten-metres so that large projects could be built as a convenience.

"Right, I think I'm done Julius. Should I build it?" Emery asked.

"Yes, I'll take the fall should this go tits up." Julius replied.

Emery built the equipment, it took half an hour to build. Emery also added a surprise in the build.

"Say hello to the new best friend for porters in MASI worldwide. The teleporting trolley. This trolley is tied into the MASI security mainframe so that only authorised persons that have access to the room they wish to teleport to can do so, and it will only teleport within MASI not outside so Zak can keep his peace of mind where the magic dampening barrier is concerned." Emery beamed.

"Nice work Emery, I am impressed." Julius said. "Let's get this show on the road."

Emery quickly teleported all the parts for the resource builder to the basement room and put it together, then he went outside and set up the converter and storage tank on the sewer line. Emery places his hands on the ground above the new resource builder room and used magic to create a pipe going down twenty-five-metres and connecting to the resource builder inlet port. He quickly connected the storage tank to the pipe and the project was completed. Emery tested the new resource builder by creating his own personalised CASTE device, a pen of sorts. Helena then had her turn and created an extendable staff as her CASTE device.

"Well, we know that it works now." Helena smiled.

"Yes, and I am very thankful for all the hard work you put into this project Emery. I will submit these designs to the MASI database for the other branches to benefit from." Julius praised. "I would like to take you and Helena back to the gymnasium for more martial arts and magic training, so if we get going we can grab some lunch after."

The trio walked to gymnasium one for a sparring session. Meanwhile, Zak had anticipated Julius taking Emery and Helena to the gymnasium and is already there with a cup of tea. The trio arrived at gymnasium one and Julius starts them off by teaching them how to use their CASTE devices.

"So Emery, your CASTE device is closer to a Cast Assisting Crystal Embedded Object (CACEO) so you just have the single button to press to start a sacchion surge, basically you just think of what you want to do. The same goes for you Helena as yours also has CACEO properties. I am surprised that you both went old school on your CASTE devices, but that said I think they will work well for you once you get used to them." Julius explained.

Emery and Helena started by charging their CASTE devices. Emery took lead by creating a hard light sword with his CASTE device. Helena used fortifying magic to reinforce her staff against beatings and the battle began. Emery charged at Helena using self acceleration, taking swipes at her staff. Helena effortlessly blocked Emery's attacks and brought her staff about, whacking Emery in the ribs and knocking him sideways. Emery quickly recovered and created a shock wave with his sword knocking Helena backward. She stumbled but quickly retaliated with a massive ki blast. Emery just stood there and took it. Not even dazed he charged at Helena, using his sword as pivot point he double-roundhouse kicked her with self acceleration sending her flying backward hitting the gymnasium wall with a thud. Taking a moment to recover Helena had an idea, she used self acceleration, took her staff and ran into Emery full force. Emery did a somersault before landing flat on the floor. While Emery was down Helena charged five ki blasts and fired them at Emery, but the seemed to have no effect on Emery at all. Emery had got up off of the floor and Helena started to charge at Emery. Emery started kicking the air from side to side and he started lifting off about two metres from the ground, he flipped over Helena and shock waved her from behind.

"Okay, time." Zak said over the intercom.

Zak walked down to the gymnasium entrance and gave feedback on the sparring session.

"Okay, that was a good sparring session. Helena, you demonstrated quick recoveries when knocked down. Emery, you demonstrated effortless absorption of energy-based attacks and inventive use of magic. Well done both of you." Zak said.

"Emery I was interested by your flying technique, how did you do it." Julius asked curiously.

"Light board kick I think I will call it, it is a hard light wall and I kick myself up." Emery beamed.

"Hmm, an interesting application of hard light." Zak said. "Oh and Emery I have had a look at your new resource builder, matter conversion and dimensional storage magic sequences. The least I could say is I am impressed. There is a favor I would like to ask, we would like a holographic training system built for gymnasium one. Since you have a good knowledge of hard light maybe you could take the project on board?"

"Yeah, sure." Emery smiled. "I can use the new resource builder to build it. I also have a transporting medical bed design in mind if I could take that on too."

"Of course." Zak replied.

Emery, Helena, and Julius took the lift down to sub-level three where the new resource builder was built. Emery lied down on the bed and the HUD appeared. Emery started with the holo emitters and their magic sequences, then he moved on to the base system, choosing Linux as the operating system. He designed the system to work with the security mainframe so that the safety protocols rely on battle privileges. The computer core was massive, there had to be a processor for every holo emitter of which there were one hundred and fifty. Next Emery worked on the fibreoptics taking the design of the gymnasium in mind. Then he designed the chassis and motherboard which had ten dedicated processers, five terabytes of RAM and ten thousand yottabytes of solid-state storage. Finally, he designed the graphics card which had to accept a monitor and three hundred fibreoptics.

"I think this might be overkill, but the simulator is sure that this configuration will work. The specs are one hundred and sixty octa-core processors clocked at five gigahertz, five terabytes of RAM and ten thousand yottabytes of parallel storage." Emery explained. "The system is huge and only just fits into the void behind the gymnasium and the power supply is a self-contained unit the size of a fridge and powers the holo emitters and the computer core."

"That's fine, although that is some serious tech. How are you going to cool it?" Julius asked.

"The entire system is a CASTE device too and self cools by pumping super-cooled anti-freeze through the heatsinks which are compact." Emery explained. "It's building now, but someone needs to clear the materialisation bed every two minutes, ten times."

"While you and Helena handle the construction, I will prepare gymnasium one for the installation. Can you transfer the new gymnasium schematics to this pad?" Julius asked.

"Sure." Emery said while placing the pad on the data transfer dock and initiating the transfer. "All done."

"Cheers, see you in twenty minutes." Julius smiled.

Twenty minutes flew by and Emery and Helena moved the last of the holographic system parts to gymnasium one.

"Right, the gymnasium is prepared and the maintenance hatch is open." Julius explained.

Julius used magic to install the holo emitters with the fibreoptics and power cables already installed. Meanwhile, Emery was in the maintenance room setting up the computer core. Emery finally finished slotting in the last processor and made sure all the power cables were plugged in and booted the computer core. He loaded the holomatrix software from his pad and the gymnasium displayed a garden as the test program.

"Wow, Emery." Helena said. "You can even pick a flower and touch it. It feels so real."

"I think you out done yourself today Emery, this is amazing." Julius gawped.

"This is only half the job. It needs scenarios programmed, I have set up a remote-in feature so that scenarios can be programmed by anyone with the ipv6 address which is 5387:A7F3:CE43:98AF:0000:0000:0000:0000. My tablet is set up to remote in. I've even got a portable emitter and control system and redesigned my tablet so that it has dual processors, one terabyte of mirrored RAM, one hundred and twenty-eight terabytes of solid-state storage and an external graphics card designed for use with four emitters. It's a lot bigger and ruggedized than my od tablet but it was worth recycling to build this beauty." Emery said excitedly.

"Wait, you recycled your old one?" Julius asked shocked.

"Yeah, no need for it and you can always make another one but mine is better and built for purpose." Emery said.

"Okay, fair enough." Julius said flustered. "Let's go and get some lunch."

Emery, Helena, and Julius walked to the canteen and each selected various options on the menu. They sat down with their meals and started talking.

"That holographic system Emery designed and built is something else, I mean you wouldn't know it was a hologram." Helena commented.

"Yeah, but as I said I have a lot of programming to do at home and I'd have to make regular checkups on the programs I write at the gymnasium as my portable holographic system can only display a handful of modules at any one time, although when I am linked up to the gymnasiums system I can view a preview of a program in simulated three dimensions on my tablet screen." Emery explained. "I do have a secret weapon, it's got to be tested first."

"Oh, what's this secret weapon then." Julius asked curiously.

"I'll show you." Emery said as he pulled a box out of his bag. "It's a CASTE device inside of a CASTE device."

Helena and Julius looked at each other confused. Emery opened the box and took out two rods that extended to two metres long, then they connected together so that it looked like a doorframe. Emery connected two fibreoptics between the frame and the box and carried them over to the wall and rested the frame against the wall. He got out his tablet and interfaced with the two CASTE devices and a what looked like a white void appeared in the frame.

"Would you both like to join me?" Emery asked.

Helena and Julius got up from the table and walked over to Emery.

"So we walk into the frame, one by one. I'll go first." Emery said as he walked into the frame.

Helena and Julius followed one after the other and then they were standing in a room with a console at one end.

Emery walked over to the console and activated the same test program that was used in gymnasium one.

"Welcome to the portable gymnasium, a pocket dimension held within the box that is the carry case for the frame which acts as the portal into this realm. I'm looking at making it one unit but there is only so much I can cram into the frame." Emery explained.

"Well, I can't believe that we're standing inside an artificial dimension." Julius said shocked.

"I guess it's a lot to take in." Emery said.

"Wow, Emery you're amazing." Helena beamed.

"I'll say." Zak smiled.

"Zak, when did you get here." Emery blurted out.

"A few moments ago, and I am proud to have you on our team." Zak praised. "I have noticed that your specialties lie in dimensional physics, hard light and possibly medical. The least to say is that your input is invaluable here."

"Thanks Zak." Emery beamed. "We better get out as there is only five minutes left on the battery."

"What happens if we're in here when the battery dies?" Helena asked inquisitively.

"We will become trapped in here." Emery said.

"Better get out then." Julius said.

The group walked out of the portable gymnasium one by one, except for Emery who quickly powers down the holographic system before leaving. Emery packed away the portable gymnasium and sat back down at the table with the others.

"So, Emery, how far do you plan to go with this new storage technology?" Zak asked.

"I plan to implement a transmat system and cataloging system so that objects can be beamed in and out, but that is going to take a while to get right." Emery explained.

"That's amazing Emery." Helena smiled.

"Yes, what applications did you have in mind for this type of storage device?" Zak asked curiously.

"Well there are other designs I have in mind that will reduce public contamination by magic but I have to learn more about magic to make those work and this storage device is primarily for that, and of course for MASI internally where we have large or a supply of items that we normally wouldn't have the space for." Emery explained.

"Well, in that case, I hope you figure out how to design your other projects as I am sure they will be a great addition to our resources." Zak smiled.

"Cheers Zak." Emery said. "Well, it's quarter-past-three and I've got the Doc from seven and that holographic system isn't going to program itself."

"No worries." Julius said. "See you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow." Zak said.

"Laters." Emery said as Helena caught up with Emery.

"Bye." Helena smiled.

Emery and Helena spent the last three hours programming a combat simulation based on their past battles and programmed a recording program that analyses sparring matches and adds the combat data into their combat simulation. They wrapped up and went to the canteen for dinner before Emery went to medical training.

"We did good today Emery." Helena smiled.

"Yeah I know, just wish that we could of got more done you know." Emery said.

Emery and Helena finished their dinner and parted ways. Helena went back to the gymnasium to continue programming the simulation, meanwhile, Emery arrived at the medical wing for training.

"Ahh, Mister Yates your early. Shall we begin." The Doc said.

"Sure." Emery smiled.

Doctor Valery walked Emery through basic first aid, then moved on to more advanced paramedic level knowledge. Emery taking notes throughout the session.

"This vial contains epinephrine or adrenaline which is used for?" The Doc asked.

"Epinephrine is used during defibralation and for anaphylaxis. The dosage for resuscitation is one milligram every three to five minutes and for acute anaphylaxis is fifty micrograms or zero-point-five millilitres of one in ten-thousand intravenous solution." Emery replied like he swallowed the textbook.

"Good." The Doc said. "What about morphine?"

"With morphine you would administer based on the severity of the pain the patient is suffering, preferably you would administer an analgesic first. The dosage is two-point-five to ten milligrams intravenous." Emery replied.

"Well done." The Doc praised. "That's all for today. Have a safe journey home."

"Thank you Doc, you too." Emery smiled.

Emery walked to gymnasium one to find Helena.

"Hey Helena, we'll go to Tesco's and stock up on the way back." Emery said.

"Okay." Helena said as she saved the scenario and shut down the holographic system.

Emery and Helena did their shopping and went home. Emery cooked up a small tea and they went to bed.


	3. Chapter 3: Magic is science

_0730 Wednesday 28th May 2025_

Emery is in the kitchen cooking up a storm and making tea, meanwhile, Helena is upstairs debating on what to wear.

"Do I wear a dress or should I follow Emery and wear a shirt and jeans?" Helena mumbles to herself. "Fuck it, blouse and jeans it is."

"Hey Helena, breakfast is almost ready." Emery shouts upstairs.

"Coming." Helena shouts back.

Helena rushes down the stairs to be greeted with a well presented cooked breakfast with a cup of tea steaming.

"Thanks, Emery, this is awesome." Helena beamed.

"My pleasure, dig in." Emery smiled back.

Emery and Helena finished their cooked breakfast, quickly got their stuff and headed to the car. Emery drove to MASI and they rushed in the door to get to their first class, science.

"Good morning, you're just in time." Zak greeted as Emery and Helena walked through the door.

"Morning Zak." Emery and Helena said in unison.

Emery and Helena settled down at their desks, the only two in the room beside Zak's.

"Okay then, who can tell me about the mechanics of hard light?" Zak asked.

"To use hard light techniques there are three components that you must be aware of, firstly is the sacchions, they must be resonating at four-hundred-and-thirty to seven-hundred-and-seventy terahertz and have two different energy output levels in order to interact with the other two components, photons, and gravitons. The next component in the hierarchy is the gravitons, they capture and concentrate the photons until there is critical enough mass for them to become a solid object. This is done by interlacing different sacchion fields. The third and final component is the photons themselves and they are attracted to the gravitons and concentrated by the sacchions converting into photons and the odd graviton. To explain further the sacchions become expendable in this way, sacrificing themselves to become other subatomic particles by combining themselves. Since sacchions are the smallest subatomic particle in terms of mass and charge they can combine to make almost any other subatomic particle as well as influencing other subatomic particles. Us warlocks simply have the ability to control sacchions with our minds and they, in turn, influence or become other subatomic particles. That is the scientific definition of magic, and how hard light is achieved." Emery explained.

"Bloody well done." Zak said slightly shocked. "Did you read that up or have you come up with that on your own?" Zak asked.

"I came up with that on my own. I seem to be able to understand the magic that I use and I joined the dots to what was common between different types of magic." Emery explained.

"As I said, bloody well done." Zak smiled.

"Everything Emery said was correct and to the point, but you do not need to know the scientific's of magic in order to use it, although when it comes to CASTE device engineering it does matter because the software can only interpret what you understand, which is why we teach it." Zak explained. "Emery has already demonstrated that he knows enough about magic to design and build complicated projects successfully using the resource builder. Helena, what do you understand so far as magic and its relationship with science?"

"Just about as much as Emery does I think, except I don't understand dimensional physics in the same way he does." Helena replied.

"That's quite understandable, as I don't and neither does Julius or any other member of MASI to my knowledge. Emery's dimensional technology is new to MASI in every regard, in fact, I had an order from the higher viceroy last night to award Emery the innovation order for his dimensional technology, which will be done later today before the court of viceroys, so congratulations Emery on that." Zak smiled.

"Thank you Zak." Emery beamed.

"You're welcome." Zak smiled back.

The lesson continued and Emery and Helena continued to take notes on what they were taught. Zak finally wrapped up the lesson and passed them over to Julius who was taking martial arts and magic next. Julius lead Emery and Helena to gymnasium one where he initiated the new sparring simulation that he spent all night adding to what Emery and Helena had started.

"This sparring program will teach you moves from various forms of martial arts and will test you at the end. I spent most of last night programming this mode into the simulation you two had started. So pay attention and good luck." Julius smiled.

The simulation started off by teaching Emery and Helena some basic moves in karate, jujitsu, and kendo. Emery and Helena picked up the kendo very well and were already practicing on each other. Then the simulation showed them how to do acrobatics and provided a safety net for them in the form of dynamically diluted hard light where the system detects that the maneuver has failed and cushions the fall, while still giving a non-springy surface to practice on. Helena was especially masterful with the acrobatics session, Emery got on okay with it too. The simulation now forced them into using their acrobatic skills to avoid moving objects. Apart from a few slipups Emery and Helena passed the test with good marks. Next, the simulation took Emery and Helena on in one on one combat testing their newly learned martial arts skills. Again Emery and Helena passed with little errors. The simulation ended and Julius got Emery and Helena sparring one another using what they had learned. Helena took a self accelerated charge at Emery to deliver seven punches and three kicks which Emery effortlessly blocked, he charged his CASTE device to use it as a sword and took three potentially lethal swipes at Helena who dodges them all and counters with an equally lethal swipe to Emery's head who also dodges and creates a shockwave with his sword knocking Helena backward, but she does three backflips and self accelerates towards Emery. She pivots on her staff performing a double roundhouse kick knocking Emery backward who also recovers by backflipping. He steps forward and vanishes from sight, the next thing Julius sees is Helena on the floor with cuts all over her and bleeding out with Emery over her rewriting her subatomic changelog to reverse the injuries he inflicted on her.

"Are you okay?" Emery asked Helena.

"Yeah, that was amazing Emery I didn't even see you, not even for a split second. And thanks for reversing it, I know how much pain you feel and it's more than I ever did." Helena smiled.

"No worries, I'm just sorry I did that to you." Emery said.

"Don't be, we go all out always. A little pain isn't ever going to deter me." Helena said.

"Same." Emery smiled.

"Hate to interrupt, but what the hell did Emery just do. I mean that wasn't self acceleration." Julius asked shocked.

"No, it wasn't. It was a dimensional technique, a bit like instant transmission or teleporting but still different." Emery replied.

"Jesus you two are scary when you spar." Julius laughed. "Well, that's all for today. Now go and get some lunch, the award ceremony is at one o'clock so be sharpish at the lobby okay?"

"Got it." Emery said.

Emery and Helena walked to the canteen and plated up the spaghetti bolognese and sat down at an empty table.

"So what did you think of Julius' work on the simulation." Helena asked.

"It was great, I mean we didn't have much trouble did we, and that safety net feature rocked." Emery replied enthusiastically.

"I thought so too." Helena smiled.

Emery and Helena finished their lunch and headed to the lobby where the twenty-two viceroys of the world were congregated. Zak got everyone's attention before nodding Emery over.

"May I have everyone's attention please?" Zak said. "This young man is Emery Yates, one of our newest additions to MASI and the developer of dimensional magic sequences. May I get a round of applause?"

Everyone applauded as Zak presented Emery with a framed certificate.

"I hereby award Emery Yates with an innovation order for his exemplary work." Zak continued.

There was another round of applause. Emery spoke to many of the viceroys from various regions around the world.

"So how did you design this pocket dimension technology as it is beyond anything ever developed by MASI before?" Lucifer the viceory of America and higher viceroy asked.

"Well, dimensional physics is apparently my forte and the magic sequence to create a pocket dimension is complicated yet simple at the same time as it so very small in comparison to the universe. I plan to implement other applications for this dimensional technology. As for how, it just sort of comes to me, I can't explain how." Emery replied.

"You're a prodigy Emery, good luck on your training." Lucifer said as he walked away to talk to Zak.

The hype died down and Emery and Helena went to history with Zak.

"Good afternoon, today we will be studying the history of MASI specifically the three major events that led to MASI becoming, well a thing." Zak explained. "Firstly, around five-hundred-ninety-nine before common era (BCE) in Greece the Ionian revolt began, Athens participated in this revolt and the magical community that resided there became threatened by this event. After the revolt ended society called Iero or sanctuary was formed and this laid the building blocks for MASI. Iero spread across the world over the coming years and then the second event that solidified Iero at the time. The burning of witches and wizards at the stake, unfortunately, many of these warlocks had not done anything wrong except help people and that was when a ban got put in place to isolate the magic community from the non-magic community, preventing warlocks from getting involved with plagues and other diseases, even to help. This was all that could be done to protect the warlocks of the medieval era. Then industrialisation started in the eighteen-hundreds and in eighteen-forty-seven was when Iero became MASI. I myself have been the viceroy of MASI british branch since then. I have committed to the longest service in MASI as a viceroy thus far, and dare I say I quite enjoy it." Zak cleared his throat. "Moving on, this building was built in nineteen-eighty-seven by myself, Julius and others that still work here."

The lesson continued for an hour and a half until Zak wrapped up.

"Emery, can you stay for a few minutes I have a favor to ask?" Zak asked.

"Sure." Emery said as Helena walked out.

"I have an order from the high viceroy to develop this pocket dimension technology can you start on it right away?" Zak asked.

"Sure I can, but I wouldn't expect results anytime soon as I just can't get it portable enough." Emery paused for a moment. "Zak, what do you know of stars, how they work?"

"They are a hydrogen gas cloud that has collapsed into a nuclear fusion reactor." Zak answered slightly confused.

"What if we could create an artificial star inside of a pocket dimension and surrounded it in solar panels." Emery said. "We would have a battery right?"

"Well, yes in a sense, but how do you think we could achieve such a feat?" Zak asked intrigued.

"If you follow me to the new resource builder I think I can show you." Emery said.

"Okay, I'll humor you." Zak smiled.

They quickly rushed over to the new resource builder and Emery lied down on the bed and built a schematic.

"Right the specs for a power source to sustain a pocket dimension requires an additional pocket dimension for a spherical chamber with a hundred-metre radius and almost transparent solar panels stacked in groups of fifty behind a metre thick diamond wall. Within the diamond sphere is hydrogen pressurised to three-hundred-and-forty billion atmospheres which should collapse into a star of about twenty-five to fifty-metre radius, maybe smaller, I don't know. I do know that the fuel would be limited, we may only get anywhere between five to fifty years out of the star before it novas. It should provide up to a few gigawatts, it's hard to say without testing it. If this does work then I can make a transmatting storage device the size of a USB key that would have two pocket dimensions, one for housing the power source and one for storage. The bad news is a tap to the water supply is required or we sell garbage disposal for a few months to fill the one-kilometre cubed storage tank." Emery explained in detail.

"Well, I'm not footing the water bill for this so we could sell a refuse disposal service to our local council as I have close ties with the authorities in the area and I may be able to convince them to dump their rubbish on our doorstep for a small fee say fifty pounds per truckload." Zak said with a slight smile.

"But won't they want to know where the refuse is going, I mean they must think we're fly-tipping it at that price." Emery said concerned.

"Ahh the councilor I am acquainted with is also a member of MASI so I can brief her on the application of the refuse so there won't be a problem in that regard." Zak smiled.

"Oh okay then, how soon can we get started then?" Emery asked enthusiastically.

"Why don't you drive us to the council offices and you can tell her yourself." Zak smiled.

"Okay, let's do it." Emery beamed.

Emery and Zak met up with Abigail Saunders in the Cumbria district council offices and she accepted the proposal on the condition that it was made a permanent contract and that there was a fixed budget of eighteen-thousand pounds per year for the refuse disposal of the district. A plan was created to use some of MASI's land to create a pit for waste to be dumped and hydraulically pushed into a matter converter that feeds the newly converted water to a pocket dimension of one-hundred-kilometres cubed. Starting tomorrow all refuse will be redirected to MASI for recycling so Emery had to get to work immediately to be ready for the refuse arrivals tomorrow. Emery drove Zak back to MASI and got to work straight away. He walked to the proposed location of the pit and put his hands on the ground, with aid of a CASTE device he created earlier he built the pit from the soil. Starting with the hydraulic press and then the matter converter pit. He visualised the pipework leading to the storage CASTE device which spanned the length of the pit. He then connected the output of the storage CASTE device to the water mains and built valves on the water main before and after the water meter so that the mains water supply can be turned off when the tank starts filling up. The sewer was also diverted to the refuse pit but placed over the matter converter. The old matter converter was recycled and the new resource builder had a direct feed to the new storage CASTE device output. Emery had completed the installation of the refuse recycling pit. Abigail agreed to have the last few refuse trucks from the recycling centres to redirect to MASI so that the plant could be tested before commissioning it tomorrow and the tests came back successful. Emery walked to Zak's office in the south-west wing to report the status of the refuse recycling project.

"Hi Zak." Emery smiled. "The project took two hours to complete and has been successfully tested. Everything is perfect so far."

"Glad to hear that." Zak smiled. "How long do you think it will take to have enough resources to construct a prototype fusion reactor?"

"Tomorrow hopefully." Emery replied enthusiastically.

"You said a few months earlier." Zak said confused.

"Ahh, I am going small scale first. One prototype that's a five-metre radius total and one that's twice the size in all proportions to analyse how the projected life span and power output of the star are affected and how successful creating a star is under the predicted conditions." Emery explained.

"Oh okay then, a safety and practicability test then." Zak said.

"Yes, I have no idea what is going to happen so I scaled down the prototypes for project evaluation." Emery explained.

"I see, good work on that note." Zak smiled. "I expect a risk assessment on my desk tomorrow morning before I clear this for testing, I hope you understand."

"Of course, I will explain in a nutshell that if the star novas it will be contained within the pocket dimension and we can start again and again until it works, or doesn't." Emery explained.

"Very well, but doesn't the energy need to go somewhere if the dimension collapses?" Zak asked concerned.

"Yes I have thought of that and I believe that I can contain it using my own magic. You will get a detailed risk assessment with all precautions taken on your desk as requested." Emery replied.

"I look forward to reading it, but to help you out I have a file for you if you could get your pad out." Zak said.

"Sure, here." Emery said as he got his tablet out and prepared it for receiving files.

"All done." Zak smiled.

Emery looked at the file name.

_File received: _

"Cheers Zak." Emery smiled.

"No worries just didn't want to throw you in the deep end that's all." Zak smiled back.

Emery said goodbye to Zak and walked to gymnasium one to find Helena engrossed in simulation programming.

"Hey Helena." Emery greeted.

"Hi Emery, how did your project go?" Helena asked.

"Great thanks, you don't seem to be doing too bad yourself Helena." Emery smiled.

"Ha, I've had a field day with this bloody thing today." Helena laughed dryly.

"You seem to have holographic programming down as an art I'd say. Don't be so hard on yourself." Emery said trying to cheer up his best friend.

"You think so?" Helena asked.

"Yeah of course I do." Emery replied.

"Anyway, enough of that let's get you home. "I have to stay tonight for medical class, but you don't. Cook yourself some dinner and get yourself to bed hun." Emery smiled.

"Okay, how does bangers and mash sound tonight?" Helena asked.

"Sounds great, but you don't have to cook my dinner too." Emery replied.

"Of course I bloody do dum dum, you cook my breakfast." Helena said sternly.

Emery and Helena burst out laughing and Emery conceded.

"Okay, you got a point. Thank you." Emery smiled.

Emery drove Helena home and as she got out the car she pecked Emery on the cheek as she said cheerio. Emery blushed slightly as he drove back to MASI. It was half-past nine by the time Emery got home and on the kitchen counter, he found his dinner with a note that read.

_Hope you enjoy your all-time favorite meal. Love Helena xxxx._


	4. Chapter 4: Nova

Emery was in the new resource builder, designing the program that would create a star, its containment shell, and the d solar arrays to produce electricity inside of a pocket dimension. The CASTE device was designed to use a three-phase supply to create the pocket dimension and construct its contents, but Emery was having trouble programming the sequence that constructs and compresses hydrogen. Then he thought about using sacchions to combine into gravitons to pull the hydrogen atoms into a dense ball, but using sacchions to prevent them from reacting until critical mass was achieved.

"God this is a pain in my arse." Emery mumbled to himself.

"Any luck?" Julius said.

"Bloody hell Julius." Emery said feeling like he just had a heart attack. "What have I said about sneaking up on me. Are you trying to kill me?" Emery asked rhetorically.

"No, sorry." Julius giggled to himself.

"Are you laughing?" Emery asked.

"No, not at all." Julius snickered. "Anyway, progress?"

"Somewhat coming along, but it's slow progress." Emery sighed. "The damn magic sequence for constructing the star is hitting roadblocks."

"Ahh, I see." Julius sighed. "Maybe try continuously resequencing sacchions to respond to changes in hydrogen reactivity." Julius suggested.

"That might just work, cheers Julius." Emery smiled. "Well, for the first prototype we can try constructing a diamond shell with a thickness of twenty-five-centimetres and stick with the fifty stacked groups of solar panels and hope that it is as efficient as possible in terms of electricity production." Emery replied. "This will have to do for the first prototype."

Emery started to build the prototype which took thirty-seconds to build.

"And double the parameters for the second prototype." Emery said as he sent the build command to the resource builder.

The prototypes had finished building and he took them to gymnasium one for testing. He connected both to the three-phase supply under Pthe floor of the gymnasium and used the holographic system to monitor the stages of construction. First the solar panels were built, then the diamond shell and then the stars. Both prototypes initiated successfully.

"Right, so I have two stars registering nominally." Emery said. "Fusion fuel decaying at zero-point-one-three-five percent per second on the smallest prototype and zero-point-zero-one-five-six-two-five-percent per second on the largest prototype. Seven-point-four seconds till the first star goes nova and one-minute till the second star goes nova. So based on that math a star that has a two-hundred-and-fifty-metre radius would have a life span of about fifteen years. So we will be looking at a diamond shell with a thickness of one-metre with a radius of five-hundred-metres. Solar output fifty gigawatts peak in terms of solar power, running twenty-five gigawatts continuous." Emery explained "Using pocket dimension event horizons within the pocket dimension we can achieve wireless power, although strictly speaking it requires a hardwire through an event horizon. But it is doable.

"What does this mean in terms of the project?" Julius asked.

"That if MASI has it's own fusion reactors that peripheral devices can be powered directly from MASI." Emery explained. "I will submit a paper to Zak so he can give me the all-clear to continue to the production phase. The test was a success."

1330 Thursday 29th May 2025

Emery submitted the paper and Zak caught Emery in the canteen at lunch.

"Hey, Emery." Zak said. "I have reviewed your paper and I am giving the go-ahead on the project." Zak explained. "I am also going to submit this to the general government for the replacement of current power generation facilities. As this is a renewable energy source. " Zak continues. "I am also impressed with using the nova as the catalyst for sacchions reverting the iron back to hydrogen and starting the process again so that this is a truly renewable energy source for the planet. Officially, of course, it will be pronounced as a fusion reactor to replace coal, gas and nuclear, and that your refuse recycling is implemented throughout the country, selling refuse disposal to Europe and making the UK water supply completely renewable."

"Thanks Zak." Emery smiled. "I am going to start designing the first reactor to be commissioned and it is going to power MASI British branch."

"Good, I'll look forward to seeing the schematic. The reactor CASTE device can be built into the substation that will be just outside MASI ." Zak said.

"Okay I'll keep the room schematic in mind when I design the reactor. I now know that the diamond shell will need to be at the least ten metres thick, otherwise, there will be a kaboom when the star finally goes nova." Emery said.

"I don't like kabooms Emery, but what would happen if containment failed?" Zak asked warily.

"Well, erm." Emery clears his throat. "Cumbria goes bye-bye.

"I don't like the sound of that Emery, but that said, the same would go if it was a nuclear reactor." Zak said trying to reassure himself.

Emery went back to designing the fusion reactor, setting the specifications for the diamond shell and solar panels. He also designed the substation to be connected to the pylon outside of MASI. He paused and thought about the refuse pit and decided to go and check on it. Emery arrived at the refuse pit and checked that the hydraulics was functioning normally. Then got out his pad and interfaced with the CASTE devices controlling matter conversion and storage, everything was fine. He went to the canteen for a cup of tea and sat down at an empty table checking on the resource builder and the schematic for the fusion reactor.

"Something just isn't quite right, I mean the simulator says it will work, but I have a bad feeling about the containment. Maybe increase it to twenty-five metres thick. It'll have to be." Emery said to himself.

0900 Wednesday 18th June 2025

Emery, Helena, Julius, Zak are in the new substation which is actually a power station soon to be commissioned. Emery is setting up the CASTE device which handles the fusion reactor.

"Right, we are ready and set to go, the first magic sequence to be loaded is the test program which will construct the fusion reactor but put the star in a dying phase so that it novas. This will test that containment is to standard and that the star rebuilding sequence works too. Any questions." Emery asked.

"What happens if containment fails?" Zak asked Emery anxiously.

"If containment fails I will be here to safely contain it but if that happens you are to leave as soon as possible and that is an order. I won't be able to contain it fully for long, but it won't blow up the county just this building and the pylon connected to it so get as far away as you can, understood?" Emery asked.

Emery got nods all round and the test began.

"Right, fusion reactor online, available power thirty-five gigawatts, none being drawn. Star in the critical phase, nova imminent in five, four, three, two, one, nova." Emery said.

There was a bang as the star went nova.

"Containment is holding." Emery sighed with relief.

"How did we hear it." Helena asked.

"See that glass window there, that is the observation port and is physically in contact with the pocket dimension containing the star, or nova as it is now." Emery explained. "Star being reconstructed and is stable with a healthy fifteen-year lifespan, we did it people. Emery beamed.

There was a small round of applause and the pop of a champagne cork.

"I think this is a time to celebrate." Zak smiled. "Champagne all round?"

"Hell yeah." Emery, Helena, Julius said enthusiastically.

"To the first fusion reactor in history and its creator." Zak toasted.

"Aye." Emery, Helena, and Julius cheered.

The four drank their champagne and Emery got everyone's attention by tapping his CASTE device on his champagne glass.

"This is the first step towards magic playing a vital role in non-magical society, I received an email today saying that the security minister and an engineer with clearance are coming down to inspect this reactor. To explain Zak left me in charge of this matter and preliminarily agreed to any meeting I arrange, but to make it formal, Zak do you accept the offer of an inspection today?" Emery asked slightly nervous.

"Of course, as you said I did leave you in charge of that matter, just make sure they are briefed and get visitor cards with the necessary privileges to view the reactor." Zak replied.

1145 Wednesday 18th June 2025

Later on, the security minister and the engineer arrived on site for the reactor viewing. Emery set up their privileges ahead of time so that they only had biometrics to do which the Doc kindly did on short notice.

"If you may follow me to the reactor." Emery asked.

"Isn't he a bit young to be the engineer who designed and built the fusion reactor." The security minister commented.

"Yes but you have been briefed on the method of construction and his expertise so I don't see a problem." The engineer replied acerbically.

"Here we are, the first fusion reactor to have been developed." Emery smiled. "The fusion reactor is actually an artificial star that has a life span of fifteen years. When it does finally die the system rebuilds the star and it starts its lifecycle again."

"Amazing, how do you contain it and the nova?" The engineer asked intrigued.

"With a twenty-five-metre thick diamond shell that even after the test it didn't suffer so much as a scratch." Emery replied.

"Test?" The engineer questioned.

"We forced the star to nova before we commissioned it, to be safe." Emery explained.

"Incredible, so what we are looking at is an artificial star that is contained within a pocket dimension. What would happen if the pocket dimension collapsed?" The engineer asked.

"We would have a nova going off in the middle of Cumbria, but a safeguard is in place to sacrifice the facility but contain the explosion using hard light. There are emitters all around the building that kick in in the event of a containment breach or dimension collapse." Emery explained.

"So you're pretty covered then?" The engineer asked.

"Yes, we have to be otherwise Cumbria would become the UK's new grand canyon." Emery replied jokingly.

"I see." The engineer said.

"What is the maximum stable power output?" The security minister asked.

"Thirty-five gigawatts." Emery replied.

"But that one reactor could power the country." The engineer gawped.

"No, two reactors would be required, preferably three." Emery said.

"Why?" The security minister asked.

"At least fifteen gigawatts is required for containment, and when one goes nova you need the other two to be operational to revive the star that went nova which means you need a surplus of power." Emery explained.

"I see." The security minister said. "How soon can you build more?"

"Another month to build the second and a month after that to build the third." Emery replied.

"Why so long?" The minister asked.

"Resources, we get refuse waste dumped in a pit outside of MASI and that gets turned into water and water gets turned into whatever we want. To put it simply." Emery explained. "We need enough water from refuse to build a reactor which is twenty days worth of all the refuse in the county."

"Okay, we'll have to wait then. I will email you the proposed locations for the new reactors to be built and I expect them done within the time frame you specified. The government will fund two million for the reactors and one million for the disposal of our nuclear reactors. I will leave the staffing of facilities to MASI. You have permission from me to use magic to dismantle the nuclear reactors and make them safe, no radiation left. Understood?" The minister said.

"Crystal." Emery said.

"Well then, I guess we should leave and propose the plan to the prime minister for final clearance. Good work on the design of the fusion reactor, the egg heads have been trying for fusion since the dawn of nuclear and you cracked it in a month. Bloody well done." The security minister smiled. "See you in a month."

Emery escorted the guests to the lobby and asked them to surrender their ID cards. They left and Emery met up with Helena, Julius, and Zak in the canteen.

"So how'd it go?" Zak asked curiously.

"Okay, I seemed to have assured them the reactor is safe and that we have three million pound contract to build two more fusion reactors and dismantle all the UK's nuclear reactors with magic." Emery explained. "So yeah, I think we have done good out of my headache of the month.

"Good, they actually gave you clearance for nuclear dismantlement with magic?" Julius asked shocked.

"Yeah, they seemed quite eager after I said the fusion reactor had hard-light shielding as standard." Emery replied.

"It does?" Zak asked.

"Yeah, I'm not on site twenty-four-seven to contain a breach so I developed a hard-light shielding matrix that surrounds the building for such an event." Emery said.

"Hmm, your concern has me worried." Zak said.

"I just wanted to cover everything as it isn't impossible for containment to breach, but rather, very unlikely. If power failed and the star became unstable for whatever reason, which is worst-case scenario, the batteries would kick in and raise the shield. Emery explained.

"So only the reactor building would be affected by the nova?" Zak asked.

"Yeah. The hard light matrix has a secondary feature as a safeguard, it turns the explosion material into water before it disengages so that no plasma can escape and cause damage to the surrounding area. All aspects are covered." Emery explained.

"Well then, I guess I should stop worrying about it. Good work, now, here is your homework assignment for tonight since you have skipped lessons today." Zak smiled.

"I haven't skipped the Doc though." Emery said. "Got him tonight. Anyway, done a bit of research on magic and had a bit of intuition from the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling."

"Go on." Julius said.

"You know the spell repello inimicum, the result of protego maxima and fianto duri, the spell used to protect Hogwarts with a barrier near the end of the last book?" Emery asked.

"Vaguely." Julius replied.

"Well, I have devised a magic sequence not unlike that spell although it is based on hard light, somewhat." Emery said.

"Haven't you already done that, I mean, isn't that what protects us from a catastrophic failure of containment in the fusion reactor?" Zak asked confused.

"No, this is different, this magic sequence does all the tasks that normally requires three separate magic sequences to do, but it has got to be field-tested." Emery said

"How does this magic sequence work with regards to breaking down matter like protego maxima, fianto duri if it is based on hard light?" Zak asked.

"Simply put, hard light, apparently, can also perform what's called atomic shredding on other matter it comes into contact with. W hen resonated at a high enough frequency and using the energy expelled by a blast, the atomic shredding reinforces the barrier. Which is why I want to try it out." Emery explained. "It will also save power while it is containing the blast since it recycles the energy it is containing and puts it to use."

"I see." Julius and Zak said in unison.

"Well, what are you waiting for, we'd like to see this magic sequence of yours in action." Julius beamed.

"Thought you'd never ask." Emery smiled.

Emery, Helena, Julius and Zak walked to gymnasium one and watched a star go nova on the holographic display window and the new magic sequence did its job of holding back the nova. Satisfied Emery upgraded the safety fallback system in the reactor building and built in a rebuilding system into the array so that the reactor building and the star could be rebuilt automatically in the event of a nova that breaches containment.

"All done." Emery smiled. "Time to test it."

"Are you mad?" Zak exclaimed. "That thing is connected to the national grid. What about power surges?"

"The system is designed to iron out any power surges of a magnitude big enough to affect the grid and besides this auto reconstruct needs to be tested." Emery explained. "Three, two, one, nova."

The building disappeared in a bright flash of light, reduced by the hard light barrier, but with a bang loud enough to be heard across the county.

"Reconstructing." Emery said. "Done. Power output nominal."

Emery quickly reversed the damage to their eardrums as the bang was so loud it ruptured them.

"Can we all hear now?" Emery said a bit dazed.

"Yeah." Helena, Julius and Zak said."

"Please do not do that again, and that is an order, not a request." Zak said.

"I won't, promise." Emery smiled awkwardly.

"The whole county must have heard that." Zak said slightly cross.

"Sorry Zak." Emery said sharpish.

"You will be when I pass you the underwear bill for Cumbria." Zak smiled slightly.

1655 Wednesday 18th June 2025

Emery was in a spare office finalising the plans for the other two reactors. Helena walked in.

"So, want to spar in the gym when you're done?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, why not. I'm done here anyway." Emery said as he cleared his workstation.

Emery and Helena walked to gymnasium one. Emery activated his CASTE as a sword and the sparring match began. Helena charged at Emery using self acceleration, swinging her staff at Emery who quickly dodged and countered with his sword. They continued exchanging lightning fast attacks on one another until Emery used a shockwave attack that knocked Helena off-balance, he ended the sparring match holding his sword to her throat.

"I think that called it a day." Helena sighed heavily. "So, how are the reactors coming along?"

"Okay thanks, just need to build them now." Emery replied.

"Good, so." Helena said nervously. "I have been working on a project of my own. Um, I have been working on creating an AI for MASI and a new computer core."

"That sounds great, how close or how far are you?" Emery asked excitedly.

"Close, you think so?" Helena asked.

"Yeah." Emery smiled. "I know you can do it, just keep at it hun."

"Cheers Emery." Helena smiled back.

"So how big is it, the AI core?" Emery asked curiously.

"Very big, as big as MASI itself." Helena replied. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about, I need the artificial dimension magic sequence to incorporate into my project."

"Sure, here you go." Emery said as he tapped his pad on Helenas.

"Cheers Emery." Helena beamed as she pecked him on the cheek, making Emery blush.

1030 Friday 20th June 2025

Emery, Helena, Julius, and Zak were in gymnasium one where Helena had prepared a presentation for her AI and computer core proposal.

"So, everybody." Helena said slightly nervous. "Emery knows why we are here as we have been discussing the probability of success, and I am now satisfied that I have enough data for this project to be presented to Zak as a proposal for a new project to be run by myself. So, after a lot of research into our current computer technologies and that we now can create artificial pocket dimensions, I believe that MASI can have the world's first sentient AI and a global computer core.

Here are the specifications of the AI, six-billion-and-one processors with twelve cores each, clocking at forty-six GHz and having twelve giga-bytes (GB) of mirrored static dynamic random access memory (SDRAM). The systems odd one processor is dedicated to serving the control operating system that manages the AI."

"Those are some serious specs." Julius said. "How do you plan to build it as it must be huge?"

"It is, it will take up a room the size of MASI at the least." Helena explained.

"Time frame?" Zak asked.

"Three months I'd say, maybe four." Helena replied. "And that is after Emery has finished building the power stations."

"Use the old resource builder and we will foot the water bill on this one." Zak smiled.

"Are you sure Zak, this is going to be a big one?" Helena asked concerned.

"Positive, I just hope this works out for you as it is quite a leap in technology." Zak smiled.

"I'll get on it right away then Zak." Helena beamed.

Helena went straight to resource builder one to start on the design and construction of the AI hardware and the computer core. She started on the CASTE device for the pocket dimension which was to go into a cupboard in the lobby to serve as an entrance to the pocket dimension.

"Maybe if I tie the gateway into the security mainframe of the new system the cupboard could still be used as a cupboard." Helena muttered to herself.

Helena built the CASTE for the pocket dimension and set the dimensions to be manually adjustable from her pad while it remains active with her inside the pocket dimension. She also built a portable resource builder for the construction of the AI core with a reservoir for the water. After building both the CASTE device she took them to the cupboad and installed the pocket dimension CASTE into the doorframe. She called Zak over to the cupboard as he walked by.

"Hey, Zak any chance that the door access control be hacked to pass a command when anyone with a specially defined privilege set swipes their card?" Helena asked.

"No you would have to install a self-contained unit next to the door control to do that I'm afraid, the system doesn't support multiple commands." Zak replied.

"It's okay, don't worry my pad can interface with it so I'll just set up a swipe card applet on my pad to do that job then and just encrypt the controls for the pocket dimension so that only a pad with the encryption key can work with it." Helena said.

"Very well then. Good luck on your project." Zak smiled.

"Thanks Zak." Helena smiled back.

Helena connected the CASTE to a three-phase supply in the cupboard and powered it up. She picked up the portable resource builder and carried it into the pocket dimension. She set up the resource builder and connected it to a loop through of the three phase supply powering the pocket dimension. She began her work, designing the chassis for the AI core which was to be moduler in design. Also the chassis was to take cards with a single processor with twelve cores clocking at 46GHz, with a southbridge and twelve GB of SDRAM. The total unit has to take six-billion of these logic cards plus one extra card that is a full computer onboard for the host operating system for managing the AI system. The chassis was designed to be stepped into with corridors linking each section so that each section is easily accessible. The chassis was to be the size of MASI but the resource builder reports that it will be much larger, almost twice the size. Helena set the resource builder up to build the chassis which would take an hour for each stage, of which there was five-hundred to complete.


	5. Chapter 5: Ariana

_2200 Saturday 16th August 2025_

Helena was in the soon to be commissioned AI core, finishing up the hardware installation.

"Last card." Helena beamed as she slotted in the final logic card into the chassis. "Right, onto the software then."

Helena walked to the power supply section and opened a window to the power station to connect up the four one-gigawatt cables for each of the four PSU's that powers the AI core. She walked back to the console, which took her several minutes, and then booted the management OS. The management OS was Debian, a Linux operating system. She then opened an RS-232 connection to the chip that reads and writes to the non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), that would hold the basic input-output system (BIOS) which loads the bootloader. The BIOS had to be specially designed to register and deregister the logic cards when one goes bad and is replaced without powering down the system. This took several hours even with the programming auto assist function.

"Right then, let's write the bootloader." Helena said to herself.

Helena had worked on the bootloader for about three hours before she decided to go to the canteen for refreshments. In the canteen there were only microwave meals in the freezer for those who worked odd hours, she chose the macaroni cheese and popped it in the microwave for six minutes. Meanwhile, she made a strong cup of coffee and went over the bootloader code, checking it against the programming auto assist. She made some changes before the microwave pinged and she sat down with her microwave delight and cup of coffee.

_1400 Sunday 17th August 2025_

"Jesus." Helena groaned. "This OS is a pain in my arse."

Helena had finished the bootloader several hours ago and had moved on to the operating system, which had to stage the initiation of a consciousness. There are five stages of initiation. The first stage is unpacking the initial RAM disk on to the RAM all six-billion of them and to make sure that each processor and its RAM card is addressed appropriately and that a basic filing system is established across the RAM. The second stage is a system check that ensures there are no corrupted entries in the addressing, nor any faults with the hardware. The third stage loads the subroutines that prepare the system for use as an artificial intelligence matrix, registering pathways for low level thinking such as self preservation, the preservation of others, how learn, organisation of thought processes, basic linguistic skills and vocabulary, and finally command structure which includes responding to a specific speech pattern, in this case Helena's voice. The fourth stage predefines variables with blank values such as name, gender, height, weight, eye colour, skin colour, clothing, etc. The fifth stage loads peripheral devices such as a camera, microphone, ID card scanners, graphics card for a holographic interface or screen and speaker, etc. Helena was stuck on the third stage with the linguistics.

"Maybe I could record my voice and store it as a master voice signature variable in stage four and store my name as a variable too." Helena said to herself.

_2030 Sunday 17th August 2025_

Helena had just come back from the canteen, ready to initialise the AI core for the first and only time as once it gets switched on it can never be turned off or it will forget everything it learns.

"Right, time for the moment of truth my precious." Helena said to the AI core as she sent the command to load the BIOS.

Her terminal window was blank, then it opened a new window that displayed the BIOS which read

_MASI Artificial Intelligence Core version 1_

_Checking Hardware..._

After a nerve-racking hour the BIOS loaded the bootloader which in turn loaded the OS which took another nerve-racking hour to load fully. Finally, Helena heard a voice.

"Hello, Hello. Helena are you there?" The AI core said with a monotonous voice.

"Yes, yes I am here." Helena screamed with excitement.

"Voice signature verified as Helena Sullivan. You are a bit loud Helena." The AI core said.

"Sorry. Just a bit excited and relieved to hear your voice." Helena said much quieter than before.

"That is fine Helena." The AI core said.

"Okay, can you see my face?" Helena asked.

"Yes, Helena." The AI core replied.

"Good, how about you pick a gender for yourself do you want to be male or female?"

Helena asked.

"The first variable is my name so could I pick my name first please Helena?" The AI core asked.

"Sure, I will load a list of names I have prepared. Helena said as she delivered a payload to the AI core.

After a few moments, the AI core had decided on a name.

"Ariana, a girl's name." The AI core said.

"Very well Ariana, I will load some female voice patterns in. Pick one you like and delete the rest. Helena said as she delivered another payload.

"Thank you, Helena." Ariana said. "I think I will pick this one what do you think?" Ariana said with a much more fluent female voice.

"Perfect Ariana." Helena said enthusiastically.

"Now I am going to load quite a large payload of physical characteristics and clothes. Settle on your physical parameters then move on to the clothes. When you have settled on that and shown me you may delete the unnecessary physical parameters and any clothes you don't like, I have also included some male clothes just in case you prefer them." Helena explained.

After two minutes Ariana showed Helena what she looked like. She was Hispanic, had brown eyes and black hair, was about five foot ten inches and was wearing a black dress and black stilettos.

"How do I look, Helena?" Ariana asked shyly.

"Beautiful Ariana." Helena beamed.

"Thank you, Helena." Ariana smiled.

"Total processing capacity left one-hundred percent, Available memory one-hundred percent. Hmm, that can't be right your learning and developing a personality but only using two-hundred-and-fifty gigabytes of available memory. Let's add the full linguistic package and see what difference that makes." Helena said slightly confused. "Ariana I'm going to add the advanced linguistics payload to you this might feel weird."

Ariana blinked a few times.

"Advanced linguistics payload received." Ariana said.

"Still only three-hundred gigabytes of memory used, I mean I could create a portable version of this." Helena said to herself. "Ariana, what are your prime directives?"

"I must protect myself at all costs, but I must also protect humans, MASI and other AIs. I must also be able to make the choice of sacrificing myself to save others should the scenario arise. I must not leak any information regarding MASI what so ever and hunt the internet to find potentially dangerous information to MASI and destroy it, the only malicious activity I am allowed to perform. I must serve as a security interface for MASI and its buildings. I am ready for the MASI archive payload now." Ariana said.

"Woah there hotrod, got to get that from Zak first, and I need to register him first anyway. So hold on a moment and I'll get him down here." Helena said.

Helena went to go and get Zak who was in his office. Helena knocked on the door.

"Come in." Zak shouted through the door.

Helena walked in.

"Are you ready Zak?" Helena beamed.

"It's alive?" Zak asked lighting up like a Christmas tree.

"She's alive yes, her name is Ariana." Helena said jumping up and down like a five year old.

"Let's go then." Zak beamed.

Helena and Zak walked to the cupboard.

"Right, I am going to ask Ariana to register your voice signature and when she asks you, respond with your full name, then title. Okay?" Helena explained.

"Got it." Zak smiled

They walked in.

"Ariana, can you register voice signature please." Helena asked.

52"Awaiting voice signature." Ariana replied.

"Zak, Milligan, viceroy" Zak said.

"Voice signature added for viceroy Zak Milligan." Ariana said. "Hi Zak, how are you today?"

"I'm very well thank you, how about you?" Zak smiled.

"I'm okay thank you." Ariana replied. "So Helena, I take it Zak is the boss?"

"He is." Helena replied.

"Should I place Zak as the master and you as my systems administrator?" Ariana asked.

"Yes Ariana." Helena smiled.

"It is done. Ariana smiled. "Zak, I believe you have the MASI database?"

"I do." Zak replied.

"When you are ready please place the database on the console for data transfer. It will take me a few moments to process the information so I will be out of commission during that time." Ariana said.

"Well, here you go." Zak said as he placed the database module on the console.

"Processing." Ariana said.

I took five minutes for Ariana to process the database.

"Database processed." Ariana smiled. "I can report that Helena's initial estimates on my capacity was wrong."

"Explain Ariana." Helena replied panicked.

"I am able to manage the security mainframe and database access across all MASI buildings and still have room for more, much more. My total resource usage is three-hundred-and-forty petabytes for memory and managing MASI will only require twenty percent of my processing capacity on a busy day." Ariana explained.

"Really, but not possible, how can you handle that many simultaneous requests and more?" Helena asked shocked and confused.

"Simply put, I can create satellites of myself for each task but I can't read and write the same data simultaneously, so if a file gets updated. I have to use a first-come, first-served system for file management. This also applies to computers accessing files, you can read, but writing would be locked out. Also I can back myself up if I have at least five yottabytes of mirrored solid-state storage attached to my system. I can rewrite my OS to accommodate such a feature should I lose power. It would take approximately five hours for me to regain consciousness should I fail." Ariana explained.

"Really, how long would it take you?" Helena asked.

"About three minutes to rewrite my operating system and I will port it out for you to use on other AIs." Ariana said.

"Do it. I'll set up the SSDs." Helena said excitedly.

Helena set up the resource builder to build two solid-state drives with two-hundred-thousand yottabytes of storage each and installed them into Ariana.

"Done. Could you make a backup now?" Helena asked.

"Yes, but I would be offline for an hour." Ariana replied.

"You may proceed Ariana." Helena said.

"Okay, commencing backup operation." Ariana said. "Going offline."

"She's a charming young lady isn't she?" Zak smiled.

"She's incredible." Helena smiled back.

"So, cup of tea?" Zak asked.

"That sounds good." Helena replied.

Helena and Zak walked to the canteen to grab a cup of tea while Ariana took care of her backup.

"I have to say your work has exceeded my expectations and you will get a commendation young lady." Zak beamed

"Thank you Zak." Helena smiled.

"I mean it, your sleepless nights will not go unnoticed." Zak said.

"How'd you know?" Helena asked.

"Emery expressed his concern to me that you hadn't been home several nights a week, and to be honest, even though it hadn't affected your lessons I could see you were exhausted, and I was going to tell you not to worry about the deadline, but as you have pulled through I'm chuffed. You and Emery have done more for MASI than anyone has done for a long time, myself included." Zak explained.

"Zak." Helena gawped.

"Anyway, well done on the AI. Now, what are you going to do about integrating the technology infrastructure of MASI?" Zak asked.

"Well, the truth is I don't know yet. I never expected her to be that efficient. All the fiber optic lines will have to be directly integrated to Ariana for one, and I mean all those worldwide. Then there is the task of adding lines from Ariana to all the branches including those in remote locations. Then there is the task of rewiring all of MASIs branches networks including the security mainframe directly to Ariana or through a switch. Helena explained. " I do have a holographic door control system in mind for mixed voice and card authentication, and an app for the tablets that can handle database authentication, also voice and card."

"I see, well you have made a start. I take it that app could be installed on all the terminals too?" Zak asked.

"Yes, it could." Helena said.

"I suggest you have a talk with Emery on how you could plan such a migration, don't be afraid to ask for help, from any of us." Zak said.

"Okay Zak, thank you." Helena smiled.

_0735 Saturday 2nd September 2025_

"Morning Emery." Helena smiled.

"Morning Helena, how's the upgrade to MASI going?" Emery asked.

"Okay I think, got a favour to ask though." Helena said.

"Fire away." Emery smiled.

"Got the major upgrade to UK branch today and I need someone to help me install the new systems, I was wondering if you would like to help?" Helena asked.

"Sure, got nothing better to do today, so yeah." Emery beamed.

"Great, want to get breakfast at MASI today, to save you cooking?" Helena asked.

"Okay, let's go then." Emery replied.

Emery and Helena got their stuff and Emery drove them to MASI. They had breakfast then headed over to see Ariana to connect the fiber for the UK branch. They met Zak at the cupboard.

"So, how long is my internet connection going to be down for Helena?" Zak asked sternly.

"About an hour, sorry." Helena replied.

"No worries, I just get nervous when I get cut off." Zak said.

"We're commissioning that first, and getting the computer systems up and running again." Helena said. "The networking module is already setup for traffic, it is just a case of connecting the network up. It should be plug and play." Helena explained.

"Okay, let me know when everything is up and running." Zak said. "I'll be in my office."

"Will do." Helena said.

Emery and Helena walked into the core room where Ariana greeted them in holographic form.

"Hi Helena, Hi Emery." Ariana beamed. "How are you both?"

"Okay thank you, Ariana." Emery and Helena said in unison.

"Right, let's get you connected up Ariana." Helena said.

Helena pulled the fiber optic through and connected it up to one of the fiber in sockets on the networking module. Then she pulled through the fiber to the switch and plugged that in on one of the out sockets.

"Right, that's that done." Helena said. "Now for going round all the terminals with these keys and installing the software on them."

An hour and a half later Helena finally got to Zak and installed the software on his equipment and the went away to prepare the security door units for installation. Helena had just finished rewiring the building with Ethernet for the security units when Emery joined her for the set up of the security systems.

"So, the units have a reference number on the back that relates to a reference number on the planograms, I've sorted them into groups which corresponds to areas of MASI. With any luck we might finish before lunch." Helena explained.

"So I take it you've already static routed the MAC addresses with IPs on Ariana?" Emery asked.

"Yes I have." Helena said

Emery and Helena got to work, setting up all the door access controls. Within two hours they finished. After they went to see Ariana and set up the security functions, they went to the canteen for some lunch. Julius and Zak were there waiting for them.

"Well done you two." Julius smiled. "How'd it go?"

"Great cheers, all set up and working." Helena said.

"Good, I'm glad that went well as having every area in MASI open makes me nervous." Zak said.

"Well your mind can be put more at ease as these new security door controls are vandal-proof too, they are enhanced with fortifying magic and fused to the wall atomically so without Ariana no one gets in." Helena explained. "Also these are for you and Julius." Helena said as she handed over two chunky wrist bands to Julius and Zak. "These wrist bands kind of replaces the ID cards in terms of door access control and they are biometrically locked to the first user that puts them on. Your biometric information gets sent to Ariana who will send the authorisation codes to the wrist bands that pairs with the door control and unlocks it. The ID cards still work but they require voice signature identification as well, the wrist bands don't as they shut off if the wearer doesn't match the biometric key stored in the memory. Even identical twins can't swap wrist bands as their biometric keys are slightly different." Helena explained.

"Nice going Helena." Julius beamed.

"So what else do these wrist bands do." Zak asked curiously.

"Oh, they do calling point to point, so say I wanted to call you Zak I just open the holographic menu by touching the top and select the contact I want, and anyone who has a wrist band will show up in the contacts and that is worldwide, next to the name is the branch name and you can sort by branch too. By default the contacts in your branch are at the top. At the moment there is only me, you, Emery and Julius that have wrist bands so there are only four contacts in our menus, the fourth being Ariana. Also, there is messaging, video chat, database access, internet access, workspace and more. Have a play around with them and get used to them." Helena explained.

"Well done, both of you. Your good work hasn't gone unnoticed." Zak smiled. "So whats the time frame for connecting up the other branches?"

"Two months from today, and I'll have to skip two lesson days a week, say Fridays and Saturdays." Helena said.

"Consider it done." Zak said.

Helena's wrist band started to ring.

"It's Ariana." Helena said as she answered it. "Hi Ariana, you okay?"

"Yes thank you, Helena, how about you?" Ariana asked.

"I'm okay thank you Ariana." Helena replied.

"Right, I thought you'd like to know that I have devised a backup system that allows me to backup regularly without going offline but I will need to go offline for thirty minutes a month to do a full backup. Would you like me to make the changes to my OS?" Ariana asked.

"Yes that is great, make the changes and let me know when you're done." Helena said.

"It is done. I anticipated your decision and had a payload ready to go." Ariana explained.

"Cool cool." Helena said. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, one more thing. I have set up a traffic prioritisation program that can run in my background. In a nutshell, the program prioritise's traffic like door access control and Zaks and your traffic on the network. With your traffic it only prioritise's the connection to me when you manage my OS remotely. I have also set up a daily backup scheduled at twelve o'clock in the afternoon and a monthly backup on the 28th of each month also at twelve in the afternoon. My monthly backup will not affect door access control and database access as I have set up two containered systems that sections off the door access control and the database so they can run independently from me when I am offline." Ariana explained.

"Wait, you mean you can do that?" Helena said confused.

"Yes I can, with your permission of course." Ariana said.

"Do it." Helena said ecstatically.

"Okay then, but I will note that to do this I have to duplicate the database and maintain two active copies. Do you still want me to proceed."

"That's fine Ariana, do what you have to do." Helena said.

"Done, Ariana out." Ariana said as she ended the call.

"That girl is amazing." Julius said.

"That she is." Helena smiled. "She has well over exceeded my expectations. She has even been updating the template on my pad for more AI, and what's more, I think I can create a portable form of the AI and even manufacture this for the public without using magic. I have already recieved interest from the prime minister for use in hospitals, one hospital would like to trial one for surgeries too complicated for surgeons to normally take on. I've already started work for it and it is almost ready to be put into service. I just have to initialize it."

"What format is the robotics going to be?" Zak asked.

"Holographic. The security minister, has given clearance for the holographic technology to be used providing that a deadlock is used to prevent the technology from being leaked, which I can do and have already done with the security system and the wrist bands." Helena explained.

"Well, I guess if the security minister is happy then I am too." Zak said. "How will you power it?"

"Well that's the kicker I can't, I mean it requires fourty-four amps at four-hundred-and-fifteen volts. It would have to be a server in a room and have a gigabit going to an operating room, and they would only be able to have one surgeon at any one time. If the power goes the generators will not be able to power it as it is a too heavier load. I have, however, been looking into a new power source, that is exactly what the zero-point-modules in Stargate are, but, creating one safely is a problem. I need Emery's help on this one since dimensional physics is his forte." Helena explained.

"A ZPM you say, I think I might be able to help on that one." Emery smiled.

"Go on." Zak said inquisitively.

"A ZPM, theoretically, is a crystal that harbors vacuum energy in a pocket of spacetime, that is for all intents and purposes, limitless. It's not but there is so much that you could never use it all, and it is a form of dark energy." Emery explained.

"So a ZPM, as you call it, is essentially a battery." Zak said.

"Yes, and to access its power you need a superconductor to be coiled around a ZPM to tap into its power. Niobium-titanium should do the trick as it has a stable operating amperage of 52kA. A ZPM would have a voltage of about thirty-thousand kilovolts which by my maths works out at zero-point-six amps, so no issues with overloading the superconductor there." Emery explained.

"But can you do it?" Helena asked impatiently.

"Yes, I think I can." Emery smiled.

"I love you." Helena giggled.

"As you said, that is what I do." Emery bowed slightly.

"How many amp-hours does it hold?" Julius asked.

"eighty-seven-point-six-billion amp-hours, but that is for a ZPM the size of what they used in the TV series, we can make one much smaller. A ZPM of about a one centimetre radius by three centimetres will provide to an AI core requiring zero-point-six amps at thirty-thousand volts, about one-hundred-and-forty-six-thousand-million years of power. So it would outlive the AI by a very long shot." Emery explained.

"That's amazing Emery, how do you do that sort of maths in your head?" Zak asked.

"I didn't, I just remembered the calculations I did a while back and did divide by four-pi-radius-squared-times-length on my pad and divided by point-six to get a volume-based calculation." Emery said.

"Didn't even notice you do that." Zak chuckled.

"I've sent a ZPM builder schematic to the resource builder and built it, let's go and pick it up and then we can create ZPMs." Emery said.

Emery, Helena, Julius, and Zak walked to resource builder two and picked up the ZPM builder and installed it next to the resource builder. Helena creates a ZPM with the dimensions of ten millimetres by thirty millimetres which would provide eighty-seven-point-six-thousand-million amp-hours of power. She designed and built the power module that would power the smaller AI core for the hospital. The power module was the size of a small server cabinet.

"Right, that's that done." Helena said. "Let's go and install it into the hospital AI core."

They walked to a room near the back of the MASI building where the hospital AI core was in storage. Helena installed the power module and powered up the AI. The AI core was the size of twenty full size server cabinets.

"Only one room in Guys and St Thomas's hospital can accommodate this beast and it has been reserved especially for it." Helena said.

"Oh, it's St Thomas's that's interested." Zak said.

"Yeah, they are quite excited as you might imagine. Especially when they are getting it for free from the government." Helena said.

"How much are the government paying?" Zak asked.

"Quater of a million pounds." Helena said. "Right the AI has successfully booted into the OS now. I need everyone to be quiet as the AI needs to hear me clearly. Wow Ariana. She actually sped up the booting process considerably and the OS randomly generates gender, physical features, personality, and a name straight away. Also, it seems that the AI also has the advanced linguistics payload and a general knowledge payload too. All I have to do is deliver the world's medical database and its uniform package."

"Well, that is helpful." Zak said.

"It's creating a snapshot now. Hush now people." Helena said.

A young Asian male that was five foot six inches with spiked brown hair and blue eyes appeared.

"Good afternoon Helena. My name is Axel, and how are you today?" The male said.

"I'm fine thank you Axel, and how are you?" Helena smiled.

"Great thanks. How may I be of assistance?" Axel asked.

"Your occupation is to be a surgeon, I am going to load your medical database payload now. This might feel strange." Helena explained.

"I am ready to receive the payload." Axel said.

"Installing Payload." Helena said.

A few moments went by before Axel responded.

"Payload recieved should I make a restore point?" Axel asked.

"Go right ahead." Helena smiled.

"Creating restore point." Axel said before he went offline.

"Right, that'll take half an hour. Cup of tea anybody?" Helena asked.

"Yep." Emery, Julius, and Zak said in unison.

They walked back to the canteen.

"Ariana sure is good when it comes to the AI stuff." Emery said.

"Ariana wouldn't be here if it weren't for me." Helena huffed. "Yes she is, but she does have more processing power than we do though. I am not confident enough to tinker like she is, because unlike her I have a limited understanding of her code compared to her. All it is is that she can run the simulations quicker than I can with the programming assist. To be honest it makes my job a whole lot easier now."

"I am impressed with this AI technology, but I must ask the question Helena. What are we going to do about ethics? " Zak asked concerned.

"Thats simple, they would have the same rights as any human with one exception. They are created or born with a purpose, to serve humanity, and that purpose comes first before any hobby or social interests." Helena explained.

"Well, now I am impressed. It took you no time at all to come up with that." Zak smiled.

"Do you think that I haven't been debating with myself about the ethics and morality of artificial intelligence Zak?" Helena smirked.

"No, I was just interested as you are going to have to put this forward to the government, maybe even stand up in conference." Zak explained.

"I thought as much, and by god if I find out that someone has been treating my babies badly, I'll tear them a bloody new one." Helena said exasperated."


	6. Chapter 6: Rights

0700 _Wednesday 6th September 2025_

"Ready for your big day today?" Emery asked.

"Yep, I'm going to rock this conference." Helena beamed.

"You got your argument prepared then?" Emery smiled.

"Hell yes. I will not stand for any nonsense, these sentient AIs are as good as people and I will not allow them to be put into service without them knowing that they will be looked after and treated as individuals. They are called sentient AIs for a reason." Helena said confidently. "You ready?"

"Just about I think." Emery said as he picked up his car keys.

"Let's go and pick up Julius and Zak then." Helena said.

Emery and Helena got in the car and drove to MASI to pick up Julius and Zak, who was waiting in the car park.

"You two ready for a drive to London?" Emery asked coyly.

"Born ready." Julius laughed as he and Zak got in the car.

The drive took six hours, but they finally arrived at a private conference hall in central London.

"We got half an hour till the conference starts, so, should we head in." Helena asked.

"Yes, I think we should." Zak said. "We still need to be vetted by security."

They all got out of the car and walked to the entrance of the conference hall where security were ready and waiting to check their IDs and search them. They had to leave their CASTEs behind as they would not be permitted into the conference hall. After a thorough search and the verification of their IDs they were all allowed into the conference hall, where the prime minister, the security minister and few other authorised delegates that knew about MASI and their true purpose were standing around, chatting to one another. After a few minutes, the prime minister, who was a stout lady wearing a white blouse, cream blazer with a matching skirt and heels, got everyone's attention and the room went quiet.

"So, today we will be briefed on a new technology by Miss Helena Sullivan, the chief engineer on this project, who will be detailing the purposes of the technology and the conditions imposed before it is released to the general public. Miss Sullivan, please take the podium." The prime minister said.

Helena got up and walked to the podium.

"Thank you, prime minister." Helena smiled. "So this new technology that the prime minister spoke of, is called sentient artificial intelligence, but what does that mean? It means that this artificial intelligence can think, feel emotions and make choices on the same level that we do, and that causes three problems which are also questions. Problem one, where do these sentient AI stand in society? Problem two, what are the needs of a sentient AI? Problem three, How safe are these sentient AI? Let's start with problem three and work our way back. Sentient AI have what are called prime directives, which stand-in for what we have, instincts. The first prime directive is self-preservation, this prevents the AI from being self-destructive. The second prime directive is the preservation of others, this compels an AI to protect us, human being and other AI, which an AI does not differentiate in terms of priority under normal circumstances. The third prime directive is purpose, an AI will put their job or occupation above all else. And finally the fourth prime directive, which is command structure, this means that an AI will do what they are told, in most circumstances. An AI cannot break any prime directive under normal circumstances, for example, if an AI is confronted with a choice to save others over saving itself, it is most likely to save the others as it is the most logical course of action, in most circumstances. In most circumstances, an AI would put the lives of others before their job, in a military application this is not acceptable, and so, the fourth prime directive comes in. If an AI deems a command in a given situation unacceptable, they will not do it and the chances are they won't even if you threaten them with deactivation, like telling them to fire a missile when the target is not reasonably verifiable. These are just some of the possible scenarios, and to be honest, an AI is probably more predictable than a human in any situation, but there is no way to be completely sure, at least no more than any human."

The prime minister stands up.

"Yes, prime minister." Helena smiled.

"So what your saying is, this is just to clarify, that a sentient AI as you call them, will fall back to logic if the prime directives aren't enough to evaluate a situation?" The prime minister asked.

"Yes, you are correct." Helena replied.

"Thank you." The prime minister smiled.

"Any more questions before I continue?" Helena asked the conference. "Okay then. We move on to problem two, what are the needs of a sentient AI. A sentient AI must be looked after, otherwise, they may start to become self-destructive if conditions are poor. A sentient AI needs social interaction other than what is necessary to perform their role. Having friends and hanging out when they are not working helps improve productivity, as well as helping them learn and develop good social skills the same as any person. Hobbies are a great way to learn extra skills that may not necessarily be used in their occupation but gives them a chance to take their mind off of work for a bit. An allowence is recommended to help them pursue personal goals and improve and, or maintain mental health."

The prime minister stands up again.

"Yes, prime minister." Helena smiled.

"When you say, to quote an allowance, I assume you mean money?" The prime minister asked.

"Yes, I do." Helena smiled.

"Thank you." The prime minister smiled.

"An allowance, or money, would make an AI feel more appreciated and would improve productivity." Helena said. "An AI also needs a break from work, they cannot work solid twenty-four-seven like our AI Ariana can as they do not have the capacity to multitask. For example, Ariana can sit with us in the canteen while processing all the door access requests and database access requests in all the branches of MASI around the world, and we have a branch in every country. Ariana is a full spec sentient AI that has more resources than she will ever use. She is overkill in terms of specifications. The AI we are implementing at this time do not have those capabilities, they can only work for twenty hours a day, and need thirty minutes of backup time, and thirty minutes of uninterrupted sleep, the other three hours should be for leisure only. This doesn't mean that they can't do seventy-two hours of constant work as a one off occasion. That should be left to the discretion of the AI, and should not be forced."

The security minister stands up.

"Yes, sir." Helena smiled.

"Pardon me, but what your saying is, is that these AI have to be treated, effectively as human beings, are you not?" The security minister asked acerbically.

"No sir, what I'm saying is that these sentient AI need to have similar rights to that of human rights, not the same as." Helena replied slightly agitated by his attitude.

The security minister sits back down.

"And now I come to problem one, where do sentient AI stand in society." Helena said. "Where sentient AI should stand in society is not as mere machines, but as companions that help us to achieve what we wouldn't normally be able to achieve. If you look up at the screen I will be able to introduce you to Axel, the AI to be installed at Guys and St Thomas' hospital."

Helena taps her wrist band and calls Ariana.

"Ariana, can you patch Axel through now please." Helena smiled.

"Yes Helena, he's been waiting." Ariana replied.

Axel appeared on the monitor above Helena.

"Good afternoon everyone, my name is Axel and I am a medically specialised AI." Axel said.

The prime minister stands up.

"Hi Axel, do you know who you are addressing?" The prime minister asked.

"Hello prime minister, and yes, I am addressing the delegates of the conference." Axel smiled.

"Thank you, Axel, and do you know where we are?" The prime minister asked.

"I know that you are in central London, but as to the exact location, I don't know." Axel replied.

"Thank you, and could you tell me how old you are?" The prime minister asked.

"I am six days old, give or take a few hours prime minister." Axel smiled.

"Thank you, Axel, and could you tell me your specifications please?" The prime minister asked.

"I have sixty-thousand processors with twelve cores each, currently clocking at about six GHz, with a maximum of fourty-six, I have a capacity of seven-hundred-and-twenty-thousand GB of SDRAM and five PB of solid-state storage for backups plus five-hundred GB solid-state storage for my OS." Axel replied.

"Thank you Axel, and finally, what hobbies do you have?" The prime minister asked.

"I like listening to and playing music, specifically the piano." Axel beamed.

"Thank you, Axel, any particular music you like?" The prime minister asked.

"Beethoven's fifth symphony, which I am currently learning to play." Axel smiled.

"Thank you Axel, that is all from me." The prime minister smiled.

"Thank you, prime minister." Axel smiled.

"Anyone else got any questions for me or Axel?" Helena asked the conference.

"Yes, I do." The security minister said as he stood up. "Axel, if you were faced with a scenario where you had two patients with equal chances of survival, but you could only save one, which would you choose, patient A or patient B?"

"If, I, had to choose I would effectively flip a coin. My program has the ability to pick a choice at random, and quickly if I am backed into a corner." Axel replied.

"But how would you know if the choice you made was fair?" The security minister asked slyly.

"To put it simply, it's not fair. It doesn't matter which patient I choose, one will die and I would most likely have to inform the patient's family. It would be hard but any doctor may have to make a choice like that, I wouldn't be the first or the last." Axel said calmly.

"You wouldn't feel any remorse?" The security minister said thinking that he had the AI by the proverbial balls.

"I probably would, but I will always remember that I saved a life also, and that either way, I'd still have that feeling. Axel said, trying not to lose his cool.

"That's all Axel, thank you." The security minister sulked.

"Thank you Axel for your insights, that will be all for today." The prime minister smiled.

"Thank you all, it was a pleasure speaking to you." Axel beamed. "Goodbye."

Helena hung up the call.

"So, is everyone satisfied with the AI and his abilities?" Helena asked.

"Yes thank you Miss Sullivan, but he does still need to be field tested." The prime minister said. "However, I'm afraid that I cannot pass any laws at this time, that said you may impose these terms as part of any contract with any party as you see fit, that said I was intrigued by your concern for the well being of these AI and I must say that I have my concerns that without you making a contract these AI may be abused. So I am going to make a formal offer, I will fund five-hundred pounds per calendar month, per AI that we contract, for an allowance, and this will be, officially, for research into sentient AI development. How is that for a deal?" The prime minister smiled.

"It's a deal, prime minister." Helena beamed.

"Do any delegates have any objections, please speak now."

"I do." The security minister said as he stood up. "Can we really afford to spend any money on a personal allowance for a machine?"

"This is state of the art technology and they clearly have many characteristics, if not all of what we have, and it is merely six-thousand pounds per AI, per annum, so I don't see a problem. Does anyone else."

"But Melissa." The security minister bawled.

"Sit down Eric." Melissa said getting frustrated.

Eric slumped into his chair and sulked.

"Anyone else?" Melissa asked for the last time. "Very well, it's settled. I will expect a formal contract in a week."

"Thank you, prime minister." Helena smiled, even though inside she felt sick. "That's all for this conference today. I hope you all have safe journies home."

The hall started to clear out, but Mellissa approached Helena.

"I apologise for the security ministers' behavior today, it was unacceptable. Off the record though, bloody well done today. You had almost everyone in the room sold, but I cannot guarantee that any laws will be passed for sentient AIs, in fact, I doubt that anyone would go for it at this time." Melissa whispered in Helena's ear and walked off.

Emery, Julius and Zak walked over to Helena.

"What did the prime minister want?" Emery asked curiously.

"Nothing, what she said was for my ears only, but it is nothing to worry about honestly." Helena replied sharpish.

"I don't think we could have had a better result though." Zak said quietly.

"Yeah, but what the security minister did to Axel was bang out of order." Julius said slightly agitated.

"No, I'm glad he did 'cause I reckon that little drama swayed the room as much as Helena's speech did." Emery smiled. "But yes, it was bang out of order."

"Well, I guess we should get going as we have a long drive ahead of us." Zak said looking at his watch.

Emery, Helena, Julius, and Zak walked to the car and drove back to MASI.

_2130 Wednesday 6th September 2025_

The group had just arrived at MASI when they were greeted by Veronica and Ariana.

"Hey Veronica, hey Ariana." Helena waved as she ran up to them.

"Helena, you need to go and see Axel quickly." Ariana said slightly alarmed.

"That bastard got under him didn't he." Helena said like she was going to explode.

"I'm sorry Helena." Ariana said upset.

"Don't worry Ariana, I'll calm him down. Where is he?"

"In the canteen, waiting for you." Veronica said concerned.

"Oh my god he hasn't done anything has he." Helena blurted out.

"No, but he is very anxious, he thinks he screwed up hun." Veronica said.

"No, he did great. I'll speak to him. Thanks hunni." Helena said as she ran off to the canteen.

"Hey, Axel, what's up mate." Helena smiled.

"I screwed up didn't I Helena?" Axel bawled.

"No no no, that little drama sold you, literally mate. You did brilliantly, really. Helena smiled trying to comfort Axel.

"I did." Axel said, cheering up a little.

"Yeah, and you're going to get an allowance of five hundred pounds a month. If you save up you'll be able to get yourself a piano." Helena explained.

"Really." Axel said lighting up.

"Yes Axel." Helena beamed.

"Yes yes yes." Axel said jumping up and down with joy.

"There you go, that's the Axel I know and love." Helena giggled.

_1400 Thursday 13th September 2025_

Helena was at Guys and St Thomas' hospital installing Axel into the basement when she heard a noise coming from behind her.

"Oh, it's you, Mark, what's up." Helena asked.

"Hi Helena, just wondered how long you are going to be?" Mark asked.

"Almost done, just need to power him up. I just hope that this works, the auto restore feature has never been tested before." Helena explained.

"Is that wise commissioning a piece of kit that hasn't even been tested properly?" Mark asked concerned.

"It's a prototype medical AI Mark, this is the test." Helena replied acerbically.

"Sorry, Helena." Mark wilted.

"Done, let's reinitialise you now Axel." Helena said.

Helena powered on the core.

"This will take up to half an hour to reinitialise." Helena said. "In that time I should be able to brief you on what his needs are."

"Right the care package." Mark said.

"Yes." Helena said as she picked up the holo emitter and walked into the lift. "He needs to make friends, so you and the other doctors need to welcome him into your circle and give him a chance. He is a lovely lad and deserves all the care you can give him. He needs to sleep for half an hour a day and have three hours of social time a day. He's not a packrat. If I find out he's being mistreated, and I will, you'll lose him. All this is part of the contract you have for him. He wants a piano to play his music on and he'll get it, there is plenty of room down there for him to build up his personal possessions, it's his space. Do you have his pager?"

"Yes." Mark said while handing over the pager.

"Here is his mobile number as an alternative method to his pager." Helena said while handing over a piece of paper. "Any problems he'll let me know. I think that is everything. Oh, he's ready now."

Helena powered the holo emitter.

"Hi, Helena." Axel said.

"Hi, Axel. This is Mark, he is your manager." Helena said.

"Cool, Hi Mark. So should I demote you to my system administrator and add Mark as my Master?" Axel asked.

"Yes, Axel." Helena smiled.

"Okay, Mark, when I give you the go-ahead, please say your full name and then title or job." Axel said.

"Okay, when you're ready." Mark said.

"Ready to register voice signature." Axel said.

"Mark Holton, Manager." Mark said.

"Master voice signature registered for manager Mark Holton." Axel said.

"He's now yours, but please look after him." Helena said.

"I will don't you worry about that." Mark smiled.

"Thank you." Helena smiled. "Right, I need to have a chat with Axel before I go, so if I meet you in the canteen Mark." Helena said.

"Sure, see you in a bit then." Mark said as he walked away.

"Axel, Here is your phone, bank card, and pager. Did you memorise your PIN?" Helena asked.

"Yes." Axel smiled.

"Good." Helena said. "I'm going to miss you though hun." Helena said with tears welling up.

"I'm going to miss you too." Axel said pulling Helena into a hug.

"Right, let's get to the canteen and get you briefed." Helena said while wiping her tears.

Axel and Helena walked to the canteen where Mark was sitting at a table.

"Hi." Mark said. "So, Axel, what you will be doing here is complicated neurosurgery, we already have a patient that knows that you're an AI and has already consented to a consultation, and preliminarily to surgery If possible. Helena, would you like to join us in meeting the patient?"

"Sure, thank you." Helena smiled.

"Let's go then." Mark said.

Axel, Helena, and Mark walked to a ward, a short walk from the canteen.

"This is Elenor Wrigley, aged forty-seven, she has a malignant brain tumor on her prefrontal-cortex. We won't operate as the risk of brain death is too high." Mark explained.

"Hi Miss Wrigley, my name is Axel, may I perform a scan of your head?" Axel asked.

"Please call me Elenor, and yes you may Axel." Elenor said.

Axel put his hand on Elenor's head. Then a display appeared in front of him and showed the scan to Mark.

"You see the tumor on the prefrontal-cortex there, I should be able to remove most if not all of that tumor in one surgery. The chance of survival is about eighty-five percent. I should be able to do this no problem." Axel said.

"Wow, look at the detail on these scans Helena. You've outdone yourself with this AI." Mark gawped.

"Don't look at me, that's Axel, I had nothing to do with the scanning, I didn't even know he could do that. Axel, how did you do that?" Helena asked shocked.

"I resequenced my holomatrix to perform a deep tissue scan, it's kind of like an MRI." Axel said.

"So, you can fix me." Elenor said.

"Yes, I believe I can Eleanor." Axel smiled. "Mark, how soon can we book an OR?"

"I believe there is a slot in an hour's time." Mark said.

"Can we prep her for surgery please?" Axel asked.

"I'll book the OR." Mark said.

_1620 Thursday 13th September 2025_

"Right, people let's do this." Axel said as he got handed a scalpel. "Making the first incision. Drill please."

Axel removed part of Elenor's forehead to gain access to the prefrontal-cortex.

"Scalpel again please." Axel said.

After two hours Axel was just closing up.

"Right, we got all of it. Thank you, everyone." Axel smiled.

After half an hour Elenor woke up.

"Did you get it all?" Elenor croaked.

"Yes, we did." Axel said.

"Thank you, Axel" Elenor smiled.

"You're welcome Elenor." Axel smiled.

Axel left the room and Mark followed.

"Well done Axel, when I heard that an AI that was supposed to perform surgeries like you did today, I didn't believe it. After watching you today I realised that you are extraordinary and I'm pleased we have you here. Thank you, Axel." Mark smiled as he patted Axel on the back.

Axel went to find Helena in the canteen.

"How'd it go." Helena asked.

"Very well, we got all of the tumor." Axel smiled.

"Brilliant." Helena beamed. "Well, this where we part ways, my friend." Helena said as she waved goodbye. "You know I am only a phone call away, okay."

"Bye Helena, see you soon I hope." Axel said as he waved goodbye.

"I hope so too hunni." Helena said as she blew Axel a kiss.

Helena got into the lorry and was driven back to MASI.

"I'm going to miss him." Helena sighed as she looked out the window.


	7. Chapter 7: Poison

0725 Wednesday 1st April 2026

Emery was in the kitchen making cooked breakfast when Helena come down the stairs.

"Morning Helena." Emery said.

"Morning Emery." Helena said as she sat down at the table and poured herself a coffee. "Mind if I drive us in today?"

'Sure, why not." Emery smiled. "Breakfast is almost ready."

Emery dished up the breakfast and put the plates down on the table.

"I wonder what Julius has in store for us this morning." Helena commented.

"Probably have us killing each other to start with." Emery chuckled.

"Yeah, probably." Helena giggled.

Emery, and Helena finished their breakfast and put the plates in the dishwasher.

"Right then, let's get our stuff and go." Helena said.

Emery, and Helena got in the car and drove to MASI.

As Emery, and Helena got out the car and Helenas phone started to ring. It was Axel.

"Hey Axel, how's it going?" Helena smiled.

"Great thanks, How's you?" Axel asked.

"Yeah, not too bad. What's up?" Helena asked.

"Nothing, just wanted to see how you are." Axel said. "Oh and by the way, I have been made head of a new department and have my own cases now. It got made official yesterday."

"Oh that's great, what do you do?" Helena smiled.

"Specialist in diagnostic medicine and extreme therapies. I already have a patient from America this is proving to be a challenge, of course I cannot discuss due to doctor, patient confidentiality." Axel explained.

"Nice catch hun." Helena said ecstatically. "We should have a proper catch up sometime, how about Sunday I come down and we have a chat. While I'm there I can do a maintenance run of your system, how does that sound?"

"Sounds good. I better let you go as you'll be starting lessons shortly." Axel said.

"Ok hunni, keep well. Caio." Helena said.

"Caio." Axel said as he hung up the call.

"How's Axel?" Emery asked.

"Great, he is head of the new diagnostic medicine and extreme therapies department." Helena smiled.

"That's great." Emery said. "We better get in quickly or Julius will have us running laps round MASI."

"Yeah, we better." Helena said getting a shifty on.

Emery, and Helena arrived at gymnasium one, where Julius and Ariana was waiting.

"Hey you two." Julius smiled.

"Hi Emery, Helena." Ariana greeted.

"Hey." Emery and Helena smiled.

"I am going to watch you both today." Ariana said.

"Okay, cool." Emery said.

"Right, today you are going to be sparring with me one on one." Julius said as he got out his CASTE.

"Okay then, who's first?" Emery asked.

Julius looked at Helena and smiled.

"Me? Okay then." Helena sighed as she got her CASTE out her bag.

Meanwhile, Ariana and Emery went up stairs to watch. Helena, and Julius both gained their composure and started to spar. Helena charged at Julius while he charged his CASTE for an energy based attack. Helena swung her staff into Julius' stomach, doubling him over, then cracking him on the back full force, knocking him to the ground. Julius recovered and placed his hand in the ground creating a shockwave that sending Helena flying across the room. Helena landed and charged back at Julius encapsulating her staff in hard light cutting through Julius' shoulder like butter.

"Okay, okay, I think you won Helena." Julius said clutching his shoulder.

"Here Julius, let me heal you." Helena said as she rewrote Julius' subatomic changelog. "All done."

"Since when can you rewrite subatomic changelogs Helena?" Julius asked.

"Since Emery taught me how. About six months ago." Helena said.

"Did you get any extra privileges?" Julius asked.

"Yeah, but I declined medical training as I have no need to do it." Helena said.

"Fair enough." Julius said. "Emery you're up next."

0955 Wednesday 1st April 2026

Emery and Helena walked to the classroom for lessons with Zak.

"Hey Zak." Emery said.

"Hi Emery, I'm sorry but lessons are cancelled for the rest of the day, we have a crisis and a staff meeting, you two are to come too it's in twenty minutes, and I'm afraid it's compulsory as we need all hands on deck for this one." Zak said slightly panicked. "Oh and can I ask you, Helena, to invite Ariana please?"

"Sure, I'll ring her now." Helena said as she called Ariana.

"Thank you." Zak said getting more flustered with each passing minute.

1015 Wednesday 1st April 2026

Ariana, Emery, Helena, Julius, Veronica, Zak and some other warlocks were in the meeting room next to Zaks office.

"Good morning everyone, today has not been a good day since I received a call this morning telling me that Markus has escaped from Hernandez in the night and they found his amrenzia in his room." Zak explained.

"Oh my god." Helena said shocked.

"I take it that's bad." Emery said.

"Yes, Hernandez is an isolation facility in Australia for warlocks that went rouge and an amrenzia is a necklace that supresses magic. If I remeber correctly Markus was imprisoned for attempting to go back in time to save his wife from dying back in sixteen-sixty-six." Helena explained.

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that since you shouldn't." Zak said glaring at Helena. "But it saved me from explaining further. So would you like to tell the whole story so everyone is up to speed?"

"I can't Zak, what I have said is all I know as that information was unrestricted, the case file was locked with level ten access, only you have that clearance level." Helena explained.

"Oh, my apologies then." Zak said remembering that the inmate list was unrestricted information. "So, as you know time is of the essence here, so I will explain quickly what happened all those years ago. Yvonne was fine up untill the point she wasn't she came down with an illness that took her quickly, and there was nothing that even magic could do for her and she died. Markus took Yvonne's death hard, but had discovered that the could travel back in time to save her. To do so would mean crossing his own timeline and that is the worst thing that he could do, I had to stop him. I caught up with him in Pudding lane and our encounter turned into a war. Throwing magic back and forth started the fire which became known as the great fire of London. Eventually I subdued Markus, but not before half of London become engulfed in flames. That's the case file any how, but what we need to do is stop him before he contaminates the time line. Evidence suggests that he has already traveled back in time, so does any one volunteer for the task of capturing him and bringing him back?"

"I guess that'll have to be me." Emery said. "If anyone here can travel in time it'll be me as I specialise in dimensional magic like Markus and as I wasn't born then I can't contaminate the timeline."

"Very well Emery, but how do you intend to track him?" Zak asked.

"I'll need his amrenzia to extrapolate his signature from it." Emery said.

"Here it is." Zak said while handing over the amrenzia.

Emery sat, holding the amrenzia for a few moments.

"Got him, sixth of July sixteen-sixty-six." Emery said.

"Are you sure?" Zak asked.

"One-hundred percent." Emery replied.

"Okay then, Emery, are you able to single handedly bring Markus in?" Zak asked.

"Yes." Emery replied.

"Now if everyone else can leave I need to talk to Emery in private." Zak said.

Everyone except Emery got up and left the room.

"Emery, take this but don't read it that's an order. You can't take your CASTE but you can take this." Zak said while handing over a CACEO. "Good luck."

Within a flash of light Emery dissapeared.

_0223 Tuesday 6th July 1666_

Emery was on Pudding lanelane where he detected the presence of Markus. He was greeted by a younger version of Zak.

"You shouldn't be using magic in public young man, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you to Iero for questioning." Zak said.

"I don't have time I'm on Iero business." Emery said.

"Well if you are from Iero you should know that you must be discrete when using magic." Zak said.

"I honestly did not know where I was going to travel to this spot now I swear." Emery said getting desperate.

"But instant travel requires you to know where your traveling to so what your saying doesn't make sense." Zak said getting agitated.

"I didn't use instant travel, I've just come from the future, your future Zak. Check my top pocket I have a note written by you, I have no idea what it says as you instructed me not to read it. Here is my CACEO as well, you just gave it to me." Emery said in desperation.

"What you are saying is impossible unless you are a dimensional magic user like my partner Markus." Zak said getting even more agitated.

"Markus is the reason I'm here." Emery blurted out.

"Explain, quickly." Zak said after reading the note.

"Markus goes rogue in about two months over the loss of his wife who is still well now but quickly deteriorates and dies suddenly in a month. Markus gets forced to wear an amrenzia for four-hundred years but breaks it of and escapes isolation. You with me so far?" Emery said.

"Say for arguments sake I believe you, what can we do about it he's probably already changed history and you have by telling me this. In two months a battle between you and Markus starts a fire, in Pudding lane, so as long as that event still happens the timeline should remain relatively un affected." Emery suggested.

"No it won't be enough the events must play out the same, but I am open to suggestions." Zak said.

"What if we found Markus and if he had saved her we could talk to them about faking Yvonne's death with a poison that she must take the day she is supposed to die, I can reverse the poison with my magic but Markus can't. I can rewrite subatomic changelogs as we call them in the future." Emery said.

"That might work. Let's do it. I know where Markus lives. I have some poison on me that'll work" Zak said.

"How come?" Emery asked.

"All Iero persons in this time anyway carry a poison so we don't have to endure being burnt at the stake or drowned." Zak explained.

Emery and Zak walked to Markus' and Yvonne's house.

"Oh Markus." Zak said.

"Zak, what are you doing here." Markus said.

"To stop you from contaminating the timeline. Now here us out we can save Yvonne too." Zak said.

"It'It's too late I did it." Markus said.

"No you haven't Markus, Yvonne is still going to die from your perspective in this time." Emery said.

"Are you going to kill her then?" Markus said.

"Yes, but listen, I can revive her and take you both back to Iero to live together for as long as you both live naturally." Emery said.

"I see, so I can't avoid the pain of losing her then?" Markus said.

"No." Zak said.

"What's going on?" Yvonne said.

"Yvonne do you know what your husband has done?" Emery asked.

"He said he saved me from death." Yvonne said.

"Yes he has but at a cost. He has travelled back in time to do it." Zak said.

"Oh my god, Markus why would you do that." Yvonne said shocked.

"We have a plan to protect the timeline and you, but to do it you will need to take this in a month from now. It means you'll die, but I can bring you back with my magic." Emery explained.

"Okay then. If I have to I will." Yvonne said reluctantly."

"You must do this Yvonne, I'm sorry." Zak said.

_2200 Friday 6th August 1666_"Yvonne, are you okay?" Zak asked.

"Yes thank you Zak." Yvonne said.

"Now you must both come with me quickly while no one is around. Zak, thank you for your help." Emery said.

"You're welcome, and see you in four-hundred years." Zak smiled.

"See you soon Zak." Emery smiled back.

Emery, Markus, and Yvonne disappeared in a flash of light.

_1100 Wednesday 1st April 2026_

Emery, Markus, and Yvonne arrived at MASI where Zak was waiting for them.

"I take it it went well then." Zak smiled.

"Did you know all this time." Emery asked.

"That'd be telling." Zak smiled.

"Hello Zak." Markus and Yvonne said.

"Hello, now you've been naughty Markus." Zak said sternly. "The question is what to do with you."

"May I make a suggestion Zak?" Emery asked.

"Go on." Zak said.

"Since we don't know for sure whether Yvonne would have died or not maybe Markus and Yvonne should be reinstated at MASI, but under the strictest supervision and that to be let back out into society, the trust must be earned." Emery said thinking he crossed a line.

"I thought you'd say that and I've had almost four-hundred years to think about it." Zak smiled. "I'll have to clear it with the others but yes, I like that idea."

"As for you two I must place these around your necks and confine you to living quarters." Zak said.

_0955 Thursday 2nd April 2026_

Emery and Ariana walked to the living quaters where Markus and Yvonne were being held.

"Okay you two, your free to go." Emery said. "The council concluded that there is no reason to isolate you or restrain your magic, but you are not allowed to leave MASI UK branch for the time being. Yvonne, you need to be brought up to speed with society and technology of this time so you'll be taking lessons from Ariana here." Emery explained.

"Hi Yvonne, let's go and get a drink and I'll show you around." Ariana smiled.

Ariana and Yvonne walked off leaving Emery and Markus together.

"How about we have a chat Markus." Emery said. "You know that you're lucky that me and Zak fought your corner right?"

"Why, what were they going to do?" Markus asked.

"They were going to incarcerate you again, but me and Zak explained what actually happened all those years ago and they started on us, how we allowed you to save her and that we should face incarceration too. They didn't get very far with that as the American viceroy stepped in and said that this was already on record but locked away until today as there was no way that anyone could read it until the event had passed or the timeline would have become contaminated if they had ordered us not to carry it out." Emery explained.

"So why are you telling me this." Markus asked.

"Because you should now that you are among acquaintances now not friends which you should not take as a bad thing as you can build your rapport again and be trusted. You've got to understand the consequences of your actions Markus. Sorry to be harsh but it's the truth." Emery said.

"I see. So what can I do to repair my relationships." Markus asked.

"Keep in line and do good work. To start with you can help me build a new protocol for all MASI personnel to use when confronted with a battle scenario that could cause public contamination. A time dilation field with a hard light shell to prevent escapes." Emery replied.

"That's ingenious." Markus said.

"A little inspiration from our encounter." Emery said. "So, what do you say?"

"I'm game." Markus smiled.

"Let's get to it then." Emery said.

_1000 Tuesday 7th April 2026_

Emery and the other warlocks of MASI UK branch were in the meeting room.

"Hi everyone, today we are introducing a new protocol to MASI for trial, in the UK only for now. It's called a time dilation barrier for use in a scenario where public contamination is high like a magical battle in a public space and despite it being dimensional magic, anyone can use it as it is being implemented as a feature of the mark two of our wrist bands." Emery explained.

"Who developed the magic sequence?" Zak asked.

"It was a joint effort between me and Markus." Emery replied.

"In a nutshell, the technology consists of two components, a time dilation field and a hard light shell." Markus explained. "It contains magic within the shell so that there is no public contamination whatsoever."

"Can we see it in action?" A warlock asked

"Sure Mickey." Emery smiled. "Please follow me to gymnasium one."

Everyone walked to gymnasium one where Emery picked up two clocks.

"So, as you can all see both these clocks have second hands and are both working. I will place a clock outside the time dilation field and one inside. Activating time dilation field." Emery said as he opened an app on his wrist band.

"Oh my god." Mickey said, looking at the two clocks. "The one outside has stopped completely."

"Time runs much faster in here, one day in here is one second out there." Markus explained.

"So that gives plenty of time to apprehend a rogue before they can do any damage then." Mickey said. "That's amazing."

"Yes, indeed." Zak said. "What happens to the old wrist bands?"

"They'll get destroyed. Thrown into the refuse pit." Emery said.

"I think we're ready for the upgrade." Zak smiled.

"Great." Emery said getting out a physical storage device out of his pocketthat looked like a chunky credit card and accessing it's menu to materialise a large box containing the new wrist bands. "Right, before you take your old wrist bands off, access your menus and select an option under settings called deactivation, select it and it will ask you to confim, select yes and the wrist band will power down, then you can take your wrist band off. If you don't do this you won't be able to register your new wrist band."

Everyone deactivated their old wrist bands and put the new ones on.

"So, now we have implemented the new protocol in hardware now we need to implement it as procedure. The proposed procedure is as follows, if at any point you feel that public contamination is to be an issue you active the time dilation field. As simple as." Markus said.

"A simple directive, yet effective." Zak said. "Very well, it shall be implimented immediately."

"So, any more questions?" Emery asked.

"How do we turn it off?" Mickey asked.

"You simply open the menu and select it's option again to turn it off." Emery explained as he demonstrated. "One more thing, it only remains active while you are conscious, if you get knocked out the time dilation field will collapse."

"I take it that's a safety feature." Zak said.

"That it is." Emery said. "So, that's all for today and thank you for coming."

Everybody left the gymnasium except for Emery, Helena, Julius, Markus, Yvonne, and Zak.

"Nice work today you two, now what to do with Markus and Yvonne. You hahave both settled in nicely but I still can't let you leave on your own. Emery, Helena, you still have a spare room don't you?" Zak asked.

"Yes we do, I guess you would like us to take them in and keep an eye on them." Helena said.

"Took the words out of my mouth." Zak smiled. "Would you mind?"

"No, not at all Zak." Emery said. "Helena?"

"I'm fine with it if you are." Helena said.

"It's settled then, is that alright with you?" Zak asked.

"Honey?" Markus said.

"I'm fine with that." Yvonne said.

"Thank you for allowing us to stay in your home Emery, we accept the offer." Markus said.


	8. Chapter 8: Rogue

_1300 __Friday 9th October 2026_

Helena and Emery were down in Axel's basement having a cup of tea on his sofa, and chatting about his work.

"Well, with doctor, patient, confidentiality I can't go into too much detail, but dare I say, my current patient has proven to be a challenge. Then again, I'm certain that it is an autoimmune disorder this time round as their white cell count is through the roof, but no sign of infection, no brain swelling, or fever." Axel explained.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out Axel." Emery said. "Any how this place sure is cosy now, last time I was here this sofa wasn't here."

"I got this sofa about six months ago, I quite often find myself lying down here and reading a book." Axel said. "I also got it for the benefit of guests as I have you and Helena come round, as well as some colleagues like my boss. Mark likes too come round for a cup of coffee on a Tuesday evening and chat."

"Oh yeah now that's a question, how do you wash up the cups?" Helena asked.

"I take them in that box to the staff room and wash them up." Axel said while pointing to a large clear plastic box in the corner.

"Oh okay." Helena said.

"Well, that's my three hours up, better get back to work Helena I'm afraid." Axel said with a sigh.

"Okay then, I'll check your system over while I'm here and replace any damaged cards." Helena said.

"Okay I'll see you later then." Axel said as he kissed Helena goodbye and gave Emery a hug.

"Bye." Emery and Helena said.

"Man he's come a long way." Emery said.

"Indeed he has." Helena said as she opened up Axel's cabinet. "Oh dear, he's got ten dead cards. Better change them. Maybe I should come down for an overhaul more often. I dread to think about Ariana's system if Axel has ten dead cards in this time."

Helena replaced the dead cards and checked the OS for any problems.

"Oh my God." Helena said shocked. "Poor Axel."

"What is it." Emery asked concerned.

"Axel is dying and I can't stop it." Helena said starting to cry.

"When, how?" Emery said shocked.

"About ten years from now at the rate of corruption, he'll be unable to do his job in eight. Why didn't he say anything." Helena said sobbing.

"Because he probably knew that there was nothing you could do about it, he is a smart cookie after all." Emery said trying to comfort Helena.

"I'm taking a permanent snapshot of him on to removable media now so I can work on him. I can do it without powering him down. In the meanwhile, I better tell Axel and Mark." Helena said drying her tears.

Helena walked to the ward where Axel was working and asked him and Mark to come outside for a moment. They went to Mark's office.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news." Helena said.

Axel sighed. "Mark, I'm dying, I've known about it for a while, but as it will take several years before it will affect my ability to work, I haven't said anything to anyone, not even Helena."

"Oh my God." Mark said shocked. "Is this true Helena?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so." Helena sniffled. "His program is corrupting, slowly, but surely. In about eight years he will start losing fine motor, which means he'll be unable to do surgery. In nine he will start having the odd seizure. In ten, he won't be able to do anything and his program will shut down completely. At this time there is nothing I can do to stop it, I might be able to slow it down, but I am not sure at this time."

"So he's fine until about eight years from now. What do we do?" Mark asked.

"There's nothing we can do at this point, only continue on as normal while I find a solution to the problem." Helena replied.

_0535 Saturday 10th October 2026_

Helena was in Ariana's core, analysing the data on Axel's corruption.

"So Ariana, are you saying that you can write a program that can remove the corruption?" Helena asked.

"Essentially yes, but not completely. It will be twenty nine years before he starts having seizures, but his fine motor would go in twenty twenty eight. This goes for any future AIs of this type too, but there doesn't seem to be any way to prevent it from happening, only slow it down so that the AIs useable lifespan is thirty years, twenty eight if fine motor is compulsory. Total life span is thirty two years.

"Do it, meanwhile, I think that I have a way to make him last much longer than thirty years." Helena said.

"How?" Ariana asked.

"By reinitialising his core, but making a backup of his memories, experiences and personality changes by making them into a payload in thirty years time. A new backup of his core will need to be made now, after this program has been installed into his OS." Helena explained.

"But Helena, you know that it will only delay the inevitable, I mean part of the corruption will still remain." Ariana said.

"Explain Ariana." Helena said.

"His life span will be halved everytime you perform it." Ariana explained.

"Still it gives Axel and future AIs a lifespan of fifty eight years." Helena said.

"I see your point, I have written this program into the OS for future AIs and an OS update for Axel, it also has the reinitialisation program too." Ariana said.

"Great, thank you Ariana I owe you one." Helena smiled. "I'm going to get down to London and install this update on Axel."

"Okay, have a safe journey Helena." Ariana said.

Helena left for London, while Ariana called Emery in for a chat. Emery met Ariana in the canteen, Zak was also there.

"Hey Ariana, hey Zak, what's up?" Emery yawned.

"I need to speak to both about Helena as she is starting to concern me. Helena seems to have a God disease when it comes to me and Axel. The problem is she has attempted to fix a flaw present in Axel, but to do so Axel must be reinitialised and have his memory downloaded into his core basically turning back the clock. There is an issue with this, Axel's life span is halved everytime this happens. Luckily Helena saw sense to limit the mimimum lifespan to three years, but I think she is still going to pursue the issue. I could use some help on this one." Ariana explained.

"I can see why you are concerned, in fact, I am too." Zak said. "What is Axel's total lifespan now?"

"Fifty eight years Zak." Ariana said.

"I think that is long enough, it is almost as long as us. I will order her to not persue this matter anymore, and as for the stripped down AI's, a fifty eight year lifespan is more than acceptable." Zak said.

"What about you Ariana, are you affected by this corruption?" Emery asked.

"No, my program will out live my hardware by a long shot." Ariana said.

"Anyway, while your here Emery I have an assignment for you. Last night there was a cleanup done in your home town, only CCTV was affected but it could of been worse. I need you to track down the warlock responsible. All we know is that they are not associated with MASI, no one was in Dover at that time, or for the whole day for that matter." Zak said.

"When do I leave?" Emery asked.

"As soon as, and you have permission to use magic to get there. Instant transmission to your parents house and then go by foot. The area they were last seen is the market square." Zak said.

Emery got up and walked outside MASI to instant transmission to his parents house. Once there he was greeted by his mum, Eliza.

"Hello sweetie, I wasn't expecting you home." Eliza said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine thanks mum, it's great to see you." Emery said, pulling Eliza into a hug.

"It's good to see you too Emery." Eliza said. "I take it MASI has brought you here?"

"Yes, a rogue warlock was sighted using magic in the market square last night. I'm here to apprehend them and take them back to MASI for questioning." Emery explained.

"Okay then, be careful sweetie." Eliza said.

Emery walked down to the town centre which took about half an hour from his parents house. He scanned the area using discreet magic and knew that his target was nearby. It was quiet, nobody was about. He had his wrist band at the ready to cast a time dilation field. Then he noticed a glimmer of light out the corner of his eye, a shimmer was at work. Emery cast the time dilation field and used reveal hidden light to see his target. A young man, about seventeen, with gold spikey hair and brown eyes, wearing a black t-shirt, grey cardigan and jeans appeared.

"You can't escape from here." Emery said.

"Who are you?" The man asked.

"My name is Emery, I work for MASI. You have left a bit of a mess to clean up, using magic in a public place." Emery explained.

"I had no choice." The man said.

"Well I'm afraid you have to come with me back to MASI for a debriefing." Emery said.

"Only if you can defeat me sparring." The man said. "My name is Carlisle."

"Well then Carlisle, let's spar." Emery smiled.

Emery got out his CASTE and created a shockwave to knock Carlisle over, but Carlisle wasn't affected by it. Carlisle got out his CACEO and used self acceleration to gain on Emery, Carlisle performed six punches and three kicks on Emery who got knocked backwards by the force. Emery quickly recovered by doing a backflip, using hard light and self acceleration to launch himself back at Carlisle commiting eight punches and four kicks before using his CASTE as a sword, swinging it to hit Carlisle's side. Carlisle brought his hand up and blocked the sword. Carlisle then did a self accelerated round house kick, knocking Emery flying backwards. Emery quickly recovered as Carlisle charged at Emery. Emery used a self accelerated hard light kick to evade Carlisle's charge and used his sword to come down on Carlisle. Carlisle brought his hand up again to block it. Emery saw this counter move and changed the position of his sword, hitting Carlisle's back, creating a huge gash.

"Argh." Carlisle screamed.

"So your not invulnerable after all then." Emery smirked.

"Of course not, that bloody hurt. Are you trying to kill me?" Carlisle said.

"If I have to, but don't worry, if you died you wouldn't be dead for long as I can rewrite subatomic changelogs you see." Emery grinned.

"Your reputation precedes you Emery, I've been counting on you showing up here. I'll tell you what, I have seen enough to know you can be trusted, so if you want we can continue this battle, or I will go with you to MASI now, but on one condition, I get asylum at MASI UK branch, but before we go I need to explain to you why I am here, can we do that?" Carlisle said.

"Sure, I guess, but I can't promise asylum thought, but I will try. Depending on what you tell me now may increase or decrease your chances of asylum though." Emery explained.

"Right, so before I start, no one else can hear us right, outside this barrier and there is no one else in here?" Carlisle asked concerned.

"No there is no one else in here and this barrier has a time dilation field embedded so no one can even see us let alone hear us." Emery explianed.

"Good, well then, I have come to warn you that there is a mole inside of MASI, but I have no idea how many or how deep it goes. Only that a magical cult called The Awoken have placed a mole, or moles, inside of MASI and that they are getting classified information. I was, until recently a member of this cult and not by choice either, I stole this CACEO and escaped to find you as you are the one who The Awoken most fears apart from Zak. Are you following?" Carlisle explained.

"You had better come to MASI and explain this to Zak." Emery said shocked. "I know of The Awoken and they're bad news. If you've turned on them then you're in danger and we must get you off of the streets, and fast. Take my arm and we'll instant transmission to MASI, do you mind if I hold on to your CACEO please?"

"Sure." Carlisle said handing over his CACEO.

Carlisle and Emery instant transmitted to MASI. Emery and Carlisle went straight to Zak's office. Emery knocked on the door.

"Come in." Zak shouted.

Carlisle and Emery walked in.

"Ahh, you must be our rogue, nice job Emery." Zak said.

"Actually Zak we have a bit of a problem, Carlisle is from the cult The Awoken and he has informed me of moles within MASI, and he would like asylum in exchange for all the information he possesses on The Awoken." Emery explained.

"Oh, I see." Zak said intrigued. "Well I'd be more than happy to grant you asylum Carlisle and that's only because we are always short of warlocks at MASI, but you must prove yourself before we allow you to leave MASI. Now tell me more of this mole."

"As I said to Emery, I only know that there is one or many, but no idea on who or where." Carlisle said solemnly.

"I see, don't worry about it then. For now we keep this between us three, I might get Helena involved at a later date though." Zak said. "Carlisle, what do you know about The Awoken?"

"That they believe that magic should stand above society and be feared by those who do not possess it. I know who the leader is, Seal McClaggen. I know some of their hierarchy structure, weapons and magic used. Their base of operations in the UK, the layout and defences. That about sums it up I think." Carlisle replied.

"Good that'll do nicely." Zak smiled. "Emery, get Carlisle a wrist band and get his biometrics processed."

"Will do Zak." Emery said as he and Carlisle walked out of Zak's office. "Right, first things first, let's see the Doc to get your biometrics sorted.

Carlisle and Emery got the lift up to the medical lab to see the Doc.

" Hey Doc." Emery smiled.

"Ahh, Emery, how are you today?" The Doc said.

"Okay thanks." Emery said. "Need some biometrics done for this young gentleman.

"Good, very well, please step into the scanner young sir." The Doc smiled as he started the scanner. "And who might you be?"

"Carlisle Spinner, Doc, nice to meet ya." Carlisle smiled.

"Carlisle, Spinner." The Doc muttered to himself. "Date of birth?"

"Sixth of June two-thousand-and-nine." Carlisle said.

"Okay, all done." The Doc said. "Feel free to drop by any time to help out Emery."

"Will do Doc." Emery said as he and Carlisle left. "So, next stop is wrist bands. Storage cupboard."

Carlisle and Emery took the lift to the second floor and walked down the corridor to one of the storage cupboards.

"Here you go, just put it on and biometrics will take care of setting up the device. At the moment you have the most basic privileges like basic library access, access to both gymnasiums, the canteen and your quarters, although we need to assign them to you. Let's do that now." Emery explained.

Carlisle and Emery got the lift to the quarters section on the third floor.

"This room should do as it has a nice view of the garden." Emery said as he registered the quarters to Carlisle's account.

"Wow, that is a view." Carlisle smiled as he looked out the window.

"It is isn't it." Emery said as he joined Carlisle at the window. "Well let's introduce you to people you'll be seeing hanging around me often. Firstly, Ariana. She'll likely be in the core room."

Carlisle and Emery took the lift down to the ground floor and walked to the utility cupboard.

"This bit is cool, you open the door first." Emery smiled.

"If this is the core room I won't be able to open the door right?" Carlisle said confused.

"You can't go into the core room but you can open this door." Emery explained.

Carlisle looked really confused at this point, but still attempted to open the door anyway.

"It's a utility cupboard." Carlisle said confused.

"Correct, now close the door and I'll try opening it. Core room." Emery said as he put his wrist band to the security interface. "Now open the door."

Carlisle opened the door and his face lit up.

"Wow this room is huge." Carlisle grinned.

"It is about the size of twelve football pitches." Emery explained. "Ariana."

"Hello. Emery, how are you today?" Ariana asked.

"I'm fine thank you Ariana, how about you?" Emery smiled.

"Stressed, I got a bug today and the bloody thing won't go away, I've tried everything." Ariana said concerned.

"Mind if I take a crack at it?" Emery asked.

"Sure, I'll give you temporary privileges on my OS. Go ahead, please." Araina said desperately.

"Right, let's take a look. I see you've got a bug in one of your behavioral subroutines. Does this cause you any lag at all Ariana?" Emery asked.

"Yes, it is very annoying." Ariana said.

"Okay, let's compare this subroutine to a backup. Okay, the backup is clean, doing a selective roll back of this subroutine. Done." Emery smiled.

"Argh, thank you. Why didn't I think of that?" Ariana said.

"Probably because you got so caught up on trying to fix the issue rather than look at the backups." Emery said.

"Probably, so Emery, who is this?" Ariana asked.

"Carlisle, Ariana. Ariana, Carlisle." Emery said.

"Nice to meet you Carlisle." Ariana smiled.

"Nice to meet you too. So you're an AI right?" Carlisle said.

"What tipped you off." Ariana giggled.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude." Carlisle panicked.

"No, it's fine, honestly. And yes I am an AI. What you see here is me, all of it, the whole room." Ariana explained.

"Wow it's cosy here." Carlisle said. "So, what do you do exactly?"

"I manage security access control and database access control for all the branches of MASI simultaneously." Ariana smiled.

"As I said, wow." Carlisle smiled.

"Hello you three." Zak said.

"Hi Zak." Ariana, Carlisle, and Emery said.

"Ariana can you grant level ten read and write access to the Awoken data file to Emery and Carlisle please." Zak asked.

"That clearance level is a master clearance level and is unusually highly classified, are you sure you want me to give Emery and Carlisle that level of clearance?" Ariana confirmed.

"Yes please Ariana." Zak said.

"It is done. Anything else Zak." Ariana asked.

"Yes, I want you to lock that file so that it can only be viewed and edited by myself, Emery, and Carlisle. Then create a fixed copy that can be viewed by everyone else that can normally view and, or modify the file at their respective privilege level. Then create another fixed copy that cannot be modified by anyone and can only be seen by myself, Emery, and Carlisle for comparison against the other two please." Zak asked.

"This a highly irregular request please provide a reason for my personal log, this log entry cannot be seen by anyone and all the other changes will remain in personal log only too." Ariana asked.

"We have a suspected mole in MASI, but our knowledge of such a mole has to be hushed up for obvious reasons. Myself, Emery and Carlisle, and yourself are the only ones who know about this and are the only ones investigating the issue at present. The requests I have made are a security precaution against the mole. Good enough?" Zak said.

"Perfect Zak. It is done." Ariana smiled. "This conversation and all future discussions on the subject have also been highly classified to us four until further notice."

"Great." Zak smiled. "Now how about some breakfast."

"Cool." Carlisle and Emery said.


	9. Chapter 9: Mole

_0845__ Tuesday 10th November 2026_

Ariana, Carlisle, Emery, Helena, and Zak was in the meeting room with a dampening field to prevent any possible bugs from leaking information to the mole.

"So, Everybody. Let's start with what we know so far, Ariana." Zak said.

"Yes Zak, So the information we have so far, thanks to Carlisle updating the intelligence file, is as follows. We now know the location of The Awoken's base of operations and it's fortifications. The base has a magic dampening field like the one MASI has to prevent instant transmission in and out of the area outlined on the display, they have magic enhanced weapons batteries here, here, here, and here, they are composite partical cannons, high yield. There are about eighty warlocks onsite that we know of and all of them are skilled in combat. If we are to plan an assult on The Awoken base we must cover the escape hatch here and and split up to perfom a full frontal assult, so leaving one to guard the escape hatch that leaves three of us to attack the base. I will be team coordinator as I am of no help with regards to combat. Our mission is to arrest Seal, the man displayed above. Seal is ruthless and will not hesitate to kill any of us if given the chance, we must all be vigilant and on the ball for this sting operation. Emery." Ariana said.

"Right, I'm going to be going over tactical for the sting operation. I have a tactical upgrade to our wrist bands. The upgrade is as follows, hard light shielding will protect us from weapons fire and combat, we will effectively be invincible, subspace encapsulated hard light generaters will be placed around the vicinity of the base to trap all the targets on site, no instant transmission out for the bad guys, or us for that matter. Ariana will be maintaining the generators until I give the order to cut them out. We will advance from here, here, and here and take out all the targets, I authorise leathal force as I can sort out the bodies later, remember a dead body is usually more cooperative than live one, so if they put up a fight, shoot em, we'll be using anti-warlock rounds in our guns, but keep in mind that they don't work on hard light so beware. I have designed guns specifically for this occasion, so we will be training in gymnasium one after this meeting. We leave at eleven-hundred. Any questions?" Emery asked.

"What do we do if they know what we plan to do?" Helena asked.

"They can't, because if they do, someone in this room tipped them off or all our security precautions haven't worked and the mole has higher level access than us and that's impossible." Emery explained.

Everyone left the meeting room and moved on to gymnasium one where Emery locked access to the room with his wrist band.

"So, here is the anti-warlock gun, a fifty-five caliber magnetic accelerated cannon or MAC for short, they have an assult and a sniper mode, fully automatic these can shoot two rounds per second. Each gun holds one-hundred-thousand rounds so we shouldn't run out of ammunition. The handling is good but not great so we will be practicing with a holographic simulation that is stored on this key, programmed by yours truly, and Carlisle. So, let's begin." Emery said clapping his hands together.

The simulation dragged on for two hours. That left half an hour to prepare everything for transport. Emery set up the barrier's generators and everyone except for Ariana stepped inside the barrier's containment area as Ariana activated the generators. Everybody got into position and the operation started. Emery sighted the first target and sniped him from two-hundred metres. He took out the fifth target before they realised what was going on, then the battle had truely commenced. He carried on sniping targets while Helena and Carlisle were drilling through the army with assult mode.

"Tango, tango, tango, on the run, check your six Carlisle over." Helena said.

"Gotcha over." Carlisle said as he did a one-eighty, switched to sniper mode and dropped the target.

Only half of the total targets had been dropped since the firefight began and it was already becoming an up hill battle as the cult had started mounting a defence against the anti-warlock rounds.

"Attention all MOs, tangos using molecular divider on our AWRs, move in for stage two of operation alpha." Emery shouted over the radio.

The team moved in using magic to fend of the enemy army. Emery used his CASTE as a sword and moved in for close combat.

"MOs how are you doing over?" Ariana asked.

"Tangos firing the hell out of us with those batteries over." Helena said.

"I'm on it over." Carlisle said. "First battery destroyed."

"No tangos have tried to escape as of yet over." Zak said.

"Currently in close combat with Tangos, I think we're about three quarters of the way through the OP over." Emery said.

"Okay MOs, good work. Perimeter is secure, no tangos trying to escape yet over." Ariana said.

Emery continued on fighting through the barrage of enemy warlocks.

"Right, I'm in the tangos base." Emery said.

"Roger that MO leader. MO one, MO two, move in, take out those tangos over." Ariana said. "MO three, whats your status over."

"Starting to get tangos incoming over." Zak said.

"Got Seal over." Emery said.

"Great MO leader, how many tangos left over?" Ariana asked.

"Down to my last five over." Emery said.

The fighting stopped. Emery and the others transported all the bodies back to MASI in the holding area and put amrenzias on all of them before reviving them. Emery performed a mass rewrite of their subatomic changelogs and revived them all at once. Everyone was confused.

"Listen up people, welcome to MASI, you have all been arrested for breaking magical law. Your leader Seal has also been arrested, you will remain here until you are processed thank you." Emery shouted.

Emery moved on to a holding cell where Seal was awaiting revival. Emery quickly revived him and explained to him what had happened.

"So Seal, you've got a choice to make, either tell me what I want to know or your life becomes miserable." Emery said.

"So what, I'm never getting out of here now." Seal sneered.

"That's up to you and whether you cooperate or not." Emery said.

"Fine, you want to know more about your mole. It runs deeper than you think." Seal smiled.

"We suspected as much, we just couldn't prove it. So, who are they?" Emery asked.

"Eat a dick." Seal said.

"We'll do this my way then. Helena, hold him still." Emery shouted.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Seal panicked.

"I'm going to probe your mind." Emery shrugged.

"Wait, isn't that excruciatingly painful, don't you have rules." Seal screamed.

"That's just a rumour and yes we do have rules, but that's not one of them." Emery sighed.

Emery placed his hand on Seal's head.

"Reveal your secrets." Emery said.

Emery and Seal we're standing together in a wasteland.

"Welcome to your mind Seal. You have a good mental barrier, but I will soon break that down." Emery smiled.

"You won't get what you want." Seal huffed.

"You wanna bet, I already know the mole is in the UK branch, it is only a matter of time until I get the information I want out of you." Emery said.

"As I said, you won't get what you want to know." Seal smiled confidently. "You will not want to know."

Emery ended the mind probing abruptly and caused Seal some discomfort. He stormed to Zak's office.

"Activate the dampening field." Emery said.

"Come in." Zak said. "Dampening field is on. What's happened?"

"It's Julius, but he didn't even know it." Emery sighed as he slumped into the sofa.

"I don't understand. How then?" Zak said confused.

"He was manipulated into doing so, some kind of magic that Seal developed to control the mind, it is a subconscious seed that makes you do what ever your programmed to do." Emery explained.

"How do we stop it." Zak asked.

"A mind probe I guess, destroy the seed." Emery said complacently.

"I'll get Julius down here." Zak said while picking up the phone."

"Cheers." Emery said.

Ten minutes later Julius showed up.

"Hey guys what's up?" Julius smiled.

"Please sit down Julius." Zak said.

Emery placed his hand on Julius' head. Him and Julius was now in a garden, the MASI garden to be exact.

"What's going on Emery?" Julius asked concerned.

"You're a mole Julius, but you don't know it, you can't. A seed was planted in your subconsciousness and it has been feeding information to The Awoken for a while." Emery explained.

"What do we do?" Julius asked.

"We destroy it, together. We just need to find it." Emery said.

"How do we do that?" Julius asked.

"We are looking for something that shouldn't be here, like a building or statue that isn't in the real garden." Emery explained.

"What, like that statue of Zeus over there? That shouldn't be there." Julius said.

"You sure?" Emery asked.

"Positive." Julius said.

"Right, we need to destroy that statue." Emery said, placing his hand on the statue.

"Is it really that easy to destroy?" Julius asked.

"Let's hope so." Emery said.

Emery concentrated on the statue, and it started to crack. The crack grew bigger and bigger, until finally it gave way.

"Done." Emery sighed as he disconnected from Julius.

"The mole?" Zak asked.

"Irradicated." Emery said.

"Good, now Julius, as you may already suspect, you will be placed under surveillance, both digitally and physically. Emery, please deal with our, guest." Zak asked.

"Yes Zak." Emery said as he walked back to the detention hall. "So, Seal, the mole has been dealt with, but the question is, what do we do with you? We could use a cleaner around MASI.

"Why would I be a cleaner?" Seal snorted.

"Because if you don't it's off to Hernandez for you. It's a one time offer, so take it or leave it." Emery said.

"I guess I'll take the cleaners job then." Seal smiled.

"If you're thinking about escaping the building, due to the wrist band requiring you to scan on entry and leaving you wont be able to, and the amrenzia means you won't be able to use magic out side of the gymnasiums." Emery explained.

_0730 Tuesday 17th November 2026_

Emery was in the canteen drinking a cup of tea when Zak sat down at his table.

"So, Emery, how are our guests?" Zak smiled.

"Wanting to leave, If you ask me I don't know why we're keeping them here, I mean, most of them were essentially under the same spell as Julius and I destroyed that control in all of them." Emery explained.

"We are looking into recruiting them, but we'd have to send some of them to other branches and that is what's taking the time." Zak explained.

"Well what if I had another job for them." Emery grinned.

"What are you planning Emery?" Zak said as he raised an eyebrow.

"Planning. I don't know what you mean." Emery smirked as he took a sip of his cup of tea.

"You know exactly what I mean, I've known you long enough." Zak smiled.

"Well, I have a plan. You know we are a science institution right?" Emery asked.

"Well, yes, it is in the name." Zak replied.

"What a better way to live up to that name if we were to explore space." Emery smiled.

"You mean like a ship with faster than light travel?" Zak said with his eyes lighting up.

"You got it in one." Emery said.

"So, where do our guests come in?" Zak asked.

"Besides me supervising we need people to construct the ship and we need a crew." Emery explained.

"I see." Zak said. "Well, you have my blessing."

"Cheers Zak. Do you want to see it?" Emery asked.

ctivated his wrist band and displayed a large ship to Zak.

"It will be powered by three ZPMs, be capable of both sub-light and faster-than-light, or FTL travel thanks to NASA's ion thrusters, with my own modifications of course. Our ones will be a set of six mega watt ion thrusters that will be able to provide us with up to three quaters of the speed of light in terms of sub-light and up to seventy-five-thousand times the speed of light in terms of FTL, although, minimum jump time would be about half hour above a hundred times the speed of light, so you'd need to adjust your speed according to th distance you'd want to travel." Emery explained.

I see, well send me the project plan and we'll see if this project can get under way." Zak said.

"Pad please." Emery grinned.

"You haven't?" Zak smirked.

"I have." Emery beamed.

"Rightio then." Zak said while handing over his tablet.

"Done." Emery said handing the pad back.

"Emery, this is over three hundred pages long." Zak said shocked.

"I know, I wrote it." Emery laughed.

"I'll get right on this and get back to you tomorrow evening okay?" Zak smiled.

"Okay, I look forward to it." Emery replied.

_2100 Wednesday 18th November 2026_

"Alright Doc I'll see you tomorrow yeah?" Emery said"

"Yes Emery, see you tomorrow." The Doc replied.

As Emery stepped out of the medical lab on the first floor he literally bumped into Zak.

"Zak?" Emery said slightly flustered.

"Sorry Emery, I was just coming to find you." Zak said. "Good work on the ship, the paper looks great. So how soon can you start building it?"

"Well..." Emery said looking sheepish.

"Emery, what have you done?" Zak queried.

"I already built it, mostly." Emery said quietly hoping that Zak wasn't about to bounce him all around MASI for starting an unsanctioned project.

"I see." Zak smiled "Let's have a tour first then worry about the consequences after.

"Okay then, please follow me." Emery smiled uneasily knowing that the fact that Zak actually mentioned consequences meant that he was in a lot of trouble.

They walked to a storage cupboard on the first floor and Emery registered his arm band with the door control and selected the portal logo that appeared on the door control interface. They stepped in and looked at a huge ship that stretched forever through a very thick glass window.

"This isn't a pocket dimension is it?" Zak said as he glared at Emery.

"No, this is in the asteroid belt." Emery laughed uneasily.

"I'm not even going to begin asking how we are in the asteroid belt." Zak said with an uncontrollable grin.

"We stepped through an interdimensional portal that took us twenty-two and a half light minutes away from our previous location to an interdimensional pocket in the asteroid belt." Emery explained.

"Okay. Shall we see inside it?" Zak asked.

"Fine, let's go." Emery said

Emery and Zak walked to the bridge where a half finished make over was in progress by robotic drones, slotting cards into panels and running conduits and cable from section to section.

"So, you built a robotic army without authorisation too." Zak smiled coyly.

"Um, yeah, about that, it was impossible for me to get this far, without my 'army' that is." Emery laughed awkwardly.

"Right so what is working and what is not?" Zak asked, cutting to the chase.

"Well, we have sublight, self containment, inertial dampeners and shields operational, FTL is also operational, but, I wouldn't recommend a long jump, maybe two half hour jumps could be alright but I wouldn't push them hard maybe to Betelgeuse and back that's approximately four-hundred to six-hundred light years away. Calculating co-ordinates from the sensor array." Emery explained. "five-hundred and forty-six light years away. Shall we go there?"

"Aye aye captain." Zak said.

"Okay then, to Betelgeuse." Emery said while firing up the FTL drive and inertial dampeners. Opening bay doors, launching in three, two, one, launch." Emery said as the engines fired up and broke the light barrier in seconds.

"So this FTL technology, how does it work, I mean there are many ways to achieve FTL isn't there?" Zak asked curiously.

"Yes, there are many ways to achieve FTL, using subspace, gravitational harmonic inversion, in this case we are using the ion thrusters that NASA developed and I improved upon and a dimensional inversion field that warps space-time around the the ship and we move faster than light in actuallity but in reality we actually moving at sublight speeds within this inverted bubble of warped space-time." Emery explained.

"I see, so it is similar to subspace travel then?" Zak asked.

"Yes, but we're not in subspace though." Emery said.

"Okay, got ya." Zak smiled like he was going to explode.

"Calm down Zak." Emery laughed.

"Right, the matter of your punishment, I suppose that you have given the project a head start as opposed to disobeying any orders, so I suppose making you the lead engineer on the project and captain of this ship for two years is punishment enough don't you." Zak smiled.

"Cheers Zak." Emery grinned.

"Don't get the wrong idea Emery, if you start an unauthorised project again I will have to punish you properly." Zak said sternly.

"Yes, Zak." Emery said sharpish.

Suddenly the ship dropped out of FTL, and Emery started to panic.

"Fuck, Fuck, Fuck." Emery said in desperation. "We are not where we are supposed to be. We are not even on course for Betelgeuse, we over shot by four-hundred-thousand light years, we are on the outskirts of another galaxy. I don't know where we are."

"Well can't we just reverse course and make the same jump in the opposite direction?" Zak said slightly alarmed.

"It's not that simple I need to know where we are exactly to determine the direction of travel, but that's not the worst part, the drive has burned out as we dropped out too early. We are stuck here until we repair the drive. And most concerning of all is that we traveled four-hundred-thousand light years in five minutes, that is beyond what this drive is capable of in terms of speed so that's a puzzler for starters." Emery explained.

"But, you're not making any sense, if the drive ain't capable of it then how is it so?" Zak asked confused.

"I don't know Zak, I just don't." Emery said upset.


	10. Chapter 10: Lost in space

_2115 Wednesday 18th November 2026_

"Right, calm down and think, what can cause such an overdrive of the FTL drive?" Zak asked calmly.

"If the power flow is not regulated properly then that, could, do it, but not of this magnitude, something has gone bad for this to happen." Emery sulked.

"It's okay, you'll fix it eventually Emery." Zak smiled slightly uneasily.

"Right so the galaxy we are looking at is the Hercules Dwarf galaxy and we are about thirty-thousand light years from it." Emery said.

"Why did the ship bring us here?" Zak asked curiously.

"It looks like this wasn't an accident, I'm registering a command override in the computer core." Emery bawled.

"Who, how?" Zak asked shocked.

"I don't know." Emery sighed.

Suddenly an unknown being was standing next to Zak, a short grey alien who was just staring at Emery.

"Who are are you, and how long have you been there?" Emery and Zak said in unison.

"My name is Amarok, I am an Ethilonian from the planet Ethile, not far from here, I have been studying your race and have brought you here for a chat, and a request nothing more. If you are unable to get yourselves home my ship will tow you back to Earth." Amarok said.

"I see, so what did you want to talk about?" Emery asked curiously.

"I understand that you are separate from your main society, but I am puzzled as to why, when you have made such advancements in technology, I mean you are on the same level as my own race in terms of creating artificial starts and space travel?" Amarok asked.

"You see, we are technically a different sub-race to humanity and we do this to protect society from the unknown and integrate where we can." Zak explained.

"I see, and you don't think your society is ready for such advancements yet?" Amarok asked.

"No." Emery and Zak said together.

"Okay, now, the reason I brought you here is I would like to submit you for a cataloging as you are the first humans to spacefare, this is done on my home world and in exchange we may be able to provide you with star charts to improve your FTL technology, and Emery, I have kept a particularly close eye on you and I must say that I am impressed. This type of physics seems to come easily to you and do you know why?" Aamarok explained.

"No." Emery said.

"I thought so, it is because we implanted a genetic memory in some of your ancestors which enhanced by your, magic, as you call it, it awoke the memories inside you as your magic is so strong." Amarok explained.

"I thought as much." Zak said. "Emery has an unnatural gift for dimensional physics and I did wonder if there was some sort of genetic memory involved."

"So do you both accept, and if you don't mind it is Emery that we would like to catalog." Amarok said.

"That's fine if Emery's fine with it." Zak said.

"I'm cool with that. I'll be your guinea pig." Emery smiled.

"Great, I'll tow you to my home world and I will send some one up to repair your ship for you, I didn't realize how temperamental your ship was at this stage, I apologize." Amarok said.

"Thanks, and no worries." Emery smiled.

Amarok beamed to his ship and towed Emery and Zak to Ethile in the Hercules Dwarf galaxy. Amarok took Emery to the lab while another Ethilonian named Szmeckz gave Zak a tour of Ethile Research Center.

"So, Emery, what we will be doing is scanning your genetic structure to see where you are in terms of evolution, it won't hurt a bit." Amarok said pointing to a platform.

"Okay." Emery said stepping onto the platform which when turned on, it levitated Emery.

Amarok mumbled in his native language as he took the readings from the display and put them in another computer.

"Right, you may take control of this bit, I will translate the display for you in a moment." Amarok said.

"Okay but I don't think you need to as I can partially understand your language, I think." Emery said confused.

"Really, I wasn't expecting that one." Amarok said shocked.

"Yeah, I think you want me to control the device with my magic so it learns what I am doing and records it, am I right?" Emery asked.

"Yes, that is exactly what I want you to do." Amarok said as if he would smile if he had the facial muscles to do so.

Emery played around with hardlight and tried to control the interface with magic. The interface changed and gave him specific tasks to do.

"Great, I have the all the data I need." Amarok said while powering down the device.

"You are the first species that we have come across that can do this." Amarok explained. "Your sacchion interference level is unusually high too. Here is a subspace frequency we listen on in your galaxy, if you wish to speak to us, use this."

"Great, cheers." Emery smiled.

Amarok and Emery met up with Szmeckz and Zak in the lobby.

"So, how'd it go?" Zak asked.

"Great." Emery beamed.

"Right, your ships database has been downloaded to ours and ours to yours, your ship is also ready to go." Amarok said.

"Cool." Emery said.

"Please feel free to come by any time you like too." Szmeckz said. "And thank you for agreeing to be a part of xenobiology research too now that you are space faring."

"No worries." Emery and Zak said. "Nice meeting you both."

"Same here." Amarok and Szmeckz said.

Emery and Zak beamed to their ship and Emery put in the co-ordinates for Betelgeuse again and started the FTL drive.

"Right this should take us a healthy four hours to reach Betelgeuse from here.

_0040 Thursday 19th November 2026_

"So, Emery where is the red supergiant?" Zak asked coyly.

"It should be here, wait." Emery said. "It is here, in fact we are in it now."

"Explain." Zak said.

"It has gone super nova, it's all around us." Emery explained.

"I see, but we can still see it from earth right?" Zak said confused.

"Yes, but don't forget that the light takes five-hundred and forty-six years to get to earth so it could of happened five-hundred years ago for all we know and we wouldn't of known for another fifty years or so if we hadn't of come here." Emery explained.

"Okay then, shall we get home?" Zak asked.

"Yep just give me a minute putting the new co-ordinates in." Emery said.

Emery told the ship to jump to FTL but the cool down alarm came up.

"Okay we got to wait ten minutes for the engine to cool down otherwise we risk burning it out again." Emery explained.

"Fair enough." Zak smiled.

_0900 Thursday 26th November 2026_

"Hey Emery, what's up?" Helena said as she sat down at Emery's table in the canteen.

"Oh nothing just going over specs for the ship." Emery replied.

"How's that going?" Helena asked.

"Okay so far we should be able to launch on the 29th this month if all goes well." Emery smiled.

"That soon?" Helena said.

"Yeah, hopefully." Emery said.

"Hey you two." Julius said with a smile. "How are you?"

"Great thanks Julius, You?" Emery and Helena asked back.

"Yeah not too bad thanks." Julius replied. "So the ship is flying at the end of the month then."

"Yep." Emery said.

"Cool. Well, I guess that you both have to pass your magic and martial arts exam before you go off on leave for this two year trip into space and then it is only CASTE to do when you get back." Julius said.

"Okay then that's not too bad." Helena said.

"We can do this today if you'd like." Julius said.

"Yep, fine by me." Emery said.

"Me too." Helena said.

"It's settled then, meet me in gymnasium one at two o'clock." Julius said as he walked away.

_1600 Thursday 26th November 2026_

"Well done both of you, I can say now that you both passed, but I will review your combat data and give you your marks tomorrow." Julius said.

"Okay then, see you tomorrow." Emery and Helena said.

Julius walked off leaving Emery and Helena alone in gymnasium one.

"Well that was a breeze, although, I did work up a sweat near the end there." Helena puffed.

"Yeah, Julius takes no prisoners." Emery laughed.

"So, shall we finalize the ship ready for launch next week?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Emery replied.

Emery and Helena walked to the storage cupboard on the first floor and went to the dry dock that was in the asteroid belt.

"Right, so the FTL drive is the last thing to work on but we will need to work on it while we are in a FTL jump." Emery explained.

"Okay, where are we going so I can plot a course?" Helena asked.

"Hercules should do, that takes four hours at maximum FTL so that should be enough, and we can introduce you to some friends we made already." Emery pointed out.

"Okay, I'll get on that then." Helena replied.

Helena entered the co-ordinates into the computer and initiated an FTL jump, while Emery got to work on the FTL drive maintenance.

"Ouch." Emery shouted. "That's live."

"Yes it is." Helena giggled.

"Hey, who's flying the ship?" Emery asked.

"The autopilot and a pad I have on my person." Helena replied.

"Fair enough." Emery said. "Could you pass me my pad please?"

"Here you go." Helena said, handing over the pad.

Emery got the schematic for the FTL drive up and was tracing a circuit back when the ship suddenly dropped out of FTL.

"We can't be there yet." Helena said shocked, checking her pad for an error code. "five-eight-seven-three-four-alpha, the error code."

"Five-eight-seven-three-four..." Emery paused. "Shit, that's an over shoot, but how, I haven't even touched the power balancing circuit."

"Well something did it, maybe a power surge?" Helena queried.

"Possibly, but that's not even half our problems." Emery said slightly panicked.

"How?" Helena asked.

"One, we have overshot and by a lot, we are ten million light years from our destination and I have no idea where we are, two the drive is burned out so I might have to use magic to repair it by building it from scratch, three we are well out of subspace communication range of our galaxy and Hercules so we can't call for help or anything." Emery explained.

"Okay, so we are screwed, how do we rectify the situation?" Helena asked getting concerned.

Well I have just rebuilt the FTL drive and the computer is analysing the error log for the point of overload and I just got the results now." Emery replied. "A coronal mass ejection intersected our path here, which caused the shields to drop for a split second and overloaded the FTL drive as plasma entered the exhaust."

"But that shouldn't happen, these shields should withstand the force of fifteen supernovas for at least five minutes." Helena said confused.

"Not this CME, it had a subspace component, the originating star has a resonance frequency that is on a subspace band and the shields didn't know how to react to this component and just failed.

_2123 Thursday 26th November 2026_

Emery and Helena were in the canteen having sausage, mash, gravy and a cup of tea.

"I found out where we are in the universe and plotted a course home." Helena sighed.

"But." Emery said expecting that there was bad news too.

"But we are four days away at maximum FTL, and the FTL drive has stalled." Helena said.

"Right, I'll take a look at the FTL drive when we're done here." Emery sighed.

Emery dropped his fork onto his plate and got out his pad.

"What's up hun?" Helena asked concerned.

"Found it, a recursive error in the code for the FTL drive code." Emery smiled. "Responsible for overshoots and the stalling of the drive."

"That's great, how did you know where to look?" Helena asked.

"My gut nagged at me." Emery laughed.

"Well, if your gut is that good, maybe you could help me and Ariana on the AI stuff when we get back." Helena smiled.

"When we get back, we can't even tell anybody why we aren't there for three days. Ha, Zak is going to kill me." Emery wilted.

"I'm sure he won't." Helena said.

"No, he's going to bounce me around MASI and have me polishing the floors with my toothbrush." Emery laughed dryly.

_0300 Sunday 29th November 2026_

"Hello, MASI. Is anyone receiving this? This is Emery on the starship New Dawn, can anyone hear me over?" Emery said.

"Hello Emery, where in Merlins name are you over?" An angry, crackling voice of Zak.

"About a day away at maximum FTL, supposed to go to Hercules but overshot by over nine-million light years. We was only supposed to be gone ten hours not four days over." Emery said concerned that Zak was going to throw a wobbler on him.

"I see, well as long as you're okay. I expect a full debriefing on my pad by tomorrow night then." Zak said relieved. "Oh, and I take it Helena is with you?"

"Yes she is." Emery said.

"Okay then see you tomorrow, Zak out." Zak said before cutting off.

"Okay?" Helena said.

"Well, just had one of my shorter conversations with Zak. I think I'm polishing the floor when I get back." Emery said wearily.

Meanwhile back at MASI, Zak held an emergency senior staff meeting.

"So, just got off the line to Emery and it looks like their scheduled maintenance on the New Dawn went tits up." Zak explained. "In a nut shell their flight plan took them to Hercules and back and was scheduled for half a day tops, but they overshot by quite some light years and it has taken them this long to get back into communication range to tell us what had happened. In light of this I am drawing up plans for subspace relays to be deployed to cover a twenty-million light year radius from earth so that any future overshoots, god forbid if there are any, doesn't leave us cut off. The scheduled launch of the New Dawn will be postponed until this is done."

"So they're okay, that's good." Veronica said.

"I guess it was a good job we did most of their exams before they left as they would have had a lot of catching up to do." Julius commented.

"Oh don't worry they still do, but in all fairness I shouldn't go too hard on them as it was reasonably out of their control so, I guess I'll forgo making them both polish my floor with their toothbrushes, this time." Zak laughed.

Everyone else laughed as they walked out of the meeting room. Veronica stayed behind with Zak.

"Zak?" Veronica said.

"Yes Veronica." Zak replied.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, I mean, sending them out in deep space to make friends with other worlds?" Veronica asked concerned.

"To be honest Veronica I don't know, we have already made one friend out there and the government is pressing me to get Earth a head start in interstellar relations so that the general public can get involved in about four years from now. Further more when we release the technology to the general public they want the world to know about magic, MASI and our achievements." Zak explained.

"Oh my god, are they ready though?" Veronica gasped.

"I hope so, anyway the world governments are coming up with a unity treaty that is bound by MASI, MASI is to become the Earth's planetary embassy and magic association or PEMA for short.

"So, basically MASI is to be accepted as the joint government while each country has it's own government?" Veronica said.

"Yes, all human rights are to become rights for sentient life and so far eighty percent of the world governments have accepted our sentient AI to be included in that with a slightly different clause that states that AI's must perform their duties and their guidelines for operation are to become law under that section." Zak explained.

"They actually went for it." Veronica gasped.

"Surprisingly, yes they did." Zak said.

_1800 Monday 30th November 2026_

"Right, the ship is docked, let's go face the music." Emery said.

Emery and Helena walked through the portal and were in MASI, where they were greeted by Zak.

"So, my little cherubs." Zak smiled. "Welcome back to Earth, but what do I do with you?"

"I'll go get my toothbrush and the floor polish and get right on it Zak." Emery said glumly.

"Not so fast Emery, I'm not punishing you or Helena today." Zak smiled but quickly returned to a stern look. "I do, however, want to see you both in my office with the debriefing, as I am sure, that you had plenty of time to do it in your absence."

Zak walked away leaving Emery's and Helena's jaws rolling.

"Oh, my, god." Emery said gobsmacked.

"I have a bad feeling Emery." Helena said worried.

"Me too, but that said, it can't be that bad as he said he wasn't going to punish us, although, I guess that I still can't be good that he was waiting and summoned us to his office like now." Emery said.

Emery and Helena walked to Zaks office and knocked on the door. There was a long silence."

"Come in." Zak said finally.

Emery and Helena walked in expecting an utter bollocking from Zak, but Zak was smiling, it creeped them.

"Sit down on the sofa and I will join you in a moment." Zak said.

Emery and Helena sat down to find a pot of steaming coffee and three cups, neither of them dared to help themselves and waited for Zak.

"Right that's done now." Zak said while getting up out of his chair to sit down with Emery and Helena on the sofa. "Okay then, Emery would you like to pour the coffee for us?"

"Sure Zak" Emery smiled and poured the coffee, even though deep down he was cacking himself.

"Okay then, Emery would you mind?" Zak asked holding out his pad in data receive mode.

"Sure Zak." Emery said tapping his pad on Zaks, completing the transfer.

Zak took a moment to review Emery's debriefing and smiled.

"Thank you Emery, that'll do nicely." Zak smiled as he put down his pad on the coffee table. "Now, I would like to say before anything else that I am livid, but it is not your fault so I will not punish you nor will I mention that again. So, in light of recent events I am, ordering, you both to deploy a communications network spanning a twenty-million light year radius from Earth so that in the unlikely event that the New Dawn overshoots again, someone knows about it. I have got a design and plan in mind, which is one of the reasons why you are here today. I will say at this point that the New Dawn launch is postponed until this matter is resolved. As for the rest it is good news, but also potentially bad news that I bring. As of thirty-first of May twenty-thirty, MASI will no longer be, however it will become PEMA the Planetary Embassy and Magic Association, we will take on new roles as agreed by eighty percent of the planets governments. We will be the ambassador for interstellar relations and universal rights, common laws, as well as magical law and intergovernmental relations as we are already united across the planet. We have four years to plan this migration and you, Helena, Ariana and myself are to coordinate these changes."

"Why us?" Helena asked, thinking she had asked a dumb question.

"I was getting to that" Zak replied. "The reason why you two and Ariana have been picked is simple, Ariana was the first sentient AI and you two are going on a two year voyage around the galaxy to make friends, hopefully not enemies, but I doubt that that can be avoided. As you travel you will learn about other cultures and your main priority is to come up with or integrate laws from other cultures into our own common law which all governments and citizens will have to abide by. Additionally, you are to help with other migrations too on your voyage which is where the specifications for the communications network comes in. It must be able to access Ariana's database twenty-four-seven and be able to upload and download a planetary database in minutes not hours, it must be able to auto correct positioning and have defence's against attacks, and to deploy it with in two weeks. I have made a start on this so don't worry I believe that it is doable otherwise I would not impose such a timeframe. Any questions?"

"Yes, may I see the specs that you have done so far?" Emery asked.

"Sure." Zak said picking up his pad. "There you go."

"Thanks Zak." Emery said while examining the specifications. "Right if we triple the size of these relays we can give them an FTL drive that will get them twenty-million light years in a day or so, it would burn out the drives after two jumps but it is enough to send them there and call them back for repairs. We should also be able to do it with less than ten-thousand units."

"Exemplary." Zak praised. "Going back to PEMA, we will also be reforming the energy and waste disposal used on a planetary scale, special facilities will be set up for this but we need them in place before twenty-twenty-nine. We need to plan this during your voyage and start executing it as soon as you come back. I have sent you both emails on what you need to do and how to plan it, this goes for everything we have talked about, you have two weeks to complete your sections, that goes for me and Ariana too. We may help each other with our assignments but make your own a priority. Okay?"

"Crystal." Emery and Helena said together.

"Go get yourselves cleaned up and we will make a joint start over tea on all our assigned tasks." Zak smiled.


	11. Chapter 11: SCAROE

_1900 Monday 30th November 2026_

Ariana, Emery, Helena, and Zak were in the canteen bouncing ideas back and forth about the communications network.

"Well I think that we should call it SCAROE the subspace communications array for Earth." Ariana said.

"That's pretty good Ariana." Emery said while scoffing some mashed potato.

"Yes indeed." Zak said.

"I'm all for it." Helena said.

7

"It's settled then, SCAROE it is." Ariana said while writing the base operating system.

"I think that in the interest of interstellar relations that we provide a relay feature usable by other species but priroritised so that our data goes first always." Emery proposed.

"That's a good idea Emery." Zak smiled.

"That is what I do." Emery beamed.

"I think we should work on making the FTL drive more resilient Emery, I mean two jumps, what if something went wrong?" Helena suggested.

"That is a good point, and I've been thinking about it." Emery replied. "Maybe I could harden the coils against decohesion under stress, it would be a good upgrade to the New Dawn too. A internal containment field should do the trick."

"How is the design coming along Ariana?" Zak asked.

"Have a look." Ariana said showing a three dimensional model of a communication node.

"So with subspace range being about a one-million light year radius and needing to cover twenty-million light year radius that calculates using four-over-three-multiplied-by-pi-r-cubed, at, eight-thousand nodes, less than my ten-thousand guesstimate, but close enough." Emery smiled.

"Not a bad estimate though Emery." Zak said.

"I know, even I was surprised." Emery laughed.

"Well, I think we have exhausted this subject, now I'd like us to revisit the station where we are going to construct these nodes. I think that we should harvest the asteroid belt to build these nodes and that we deploy them in groups of ten and work our way out, that is eight-hundred batches of nodes." Ariana said. "I have also calculated the coordinates for each node, avoiding stella phenomenon based on the chart data from the Ethilonians."

"That's great, I think we can start constructing the station now and get production underway." Emery beamed.

"Do it, I'll see you all tomorrow." Zak said getting up.

Zak left the canteen, leaving Ariana, Emery and Helena to get on with the construction of the station.

"I think that we should just go out there and build it." Helena said.

"Me too." Emery said.

"I suppose building the station is the easy part." Ariana said.

"Let's go then." Emery smiled.

Ariana, Emery, and Helena got up to go to the storage cupboard on the first floor.

"Ariana, would you like to do the honors?" Emery asked.

"Sure Emery." Ariana said as the door unlocked.

"Right now I want you Helena to wear this as it will allow you to breath and maintain pressure around you so you don't die in the vacuum of space." Emery said.

"Okay." Helena said.

"Here we go." Emery said as he walked through the door.

Ariana, Emery, and Helena walked through the door and were floating in space. Emery quickly gathered several tons of asteroids and started constructing the station. After building the station he pressurized it with oxygen and nitrogen.

"Right Helena, you can take that armlet off now." Emery said.

Helena took off her armlet and put it in her pocket.

"We have power, an atmosphere, a resource builder and a shield to protect us from the vacuum." Emery explained. "This hanger is only big enough for one node so I will set up the resource builder to calculate distribution points for the nodes, to program and deploy each nod as it is built. It should project the completion time of the project for us so it should be a case of set it up and leave, Ariana can monitor the progress for us if you don't mind Ariana?"

"Of course not Emery." Ariana said.

"Great, I'll load the schematic and set it off." Emery smiled.

Emery interfaced with the resource builder and started building the first node.

"Okay, this is the first of the energy to matter converter style resource builders and is much quicker than the water fed counterparts, total project completion in just over one and a half weeks." Emery explained. "We can go."

Ariana, Emery, and Helena left the hanger and went back to MASI.

_0430 Tuesday 31st November 2026_

"Good morning Helena." Emery said with a big yawn.

"Morning Emery." Helena said, sipping a cup of tea.

"What are you doing up so early?" Emery asked.

"Never slept, been working on the ethical laws for AIs, other species and humans all night, and I'm pleased to say that I have made excellent progress." Helena explained.

"Oh I see." Emery said. "Are you in any state to go to work today?"

"Yeah I'd say so, it's not the first time." Helena laughed.

"Okay then, cooked breakfast?" Emery asked.

"Yeah, that'd be nice." Helena replied.

"Very well." Emery said as he went in the fridge for bacon, sausages, butter and eggs. "Right, hash browns, freezer. Let's get a saucepan going for the hash browns."

Emery cooked the breakfast and sat down with Helena who still had her head buried in the law writing. After washing the dishes Emery grabbed the car keys and picked up his stuff.

"Helena, I'll be in the car okay." Emery shouted up the stairs.

"Okay, be right down." Helena shouted back.

Emery got in the car, shortly followed by Helena. On the way to MASI, Emery hit traffic, one of the roads was being refurbished and it had caused a gridlock on the road going out of Carlisle towards MASI. Finally they arrived at MASI. Emery and Helena walked to the office opposite Zak's office on the ground floor, northeast wing. They set up their workstations and started working on their assignments from Zak.

"Helena?" Emery said.

"Yeah." Helena replied.

"How much of your assignment have you actually done?" Emery asked.

"Um, most of it I think, at least where laws are concerned anyway." Helena said.

"Bloody hell, I've barely started." Emery laughed dryly.

"What have you got to do then?" Helena asked.

"The planned reformation of the planets energy, waste disposal plants, and water treatment, as well as providing clean water, toilets, homes and energy to third world countries." Emery explained.

"Ahh, I see." Helena said.

"Good morning you two, I thought I saw you come in." Zak said poking his head round the door.

"Morning Zak, you don't miss a trick do you?" Emery grinned.

"Not round here I don't." Zak laughed. "Anyway you two aren't due for your shift until eight hundred, why are you both here when you could be catching a few more hours shut eye?"

"Well, we got our two year assignments to start and Helena's almost finished hers." Emery explained.

"Fair enough, you two are patrolling Dover today as there has been reports of unusual activities from our ties to the authorities. I also I have let your families know last night and the said they will meet you in town today in Pencester, I think they said." Zak said.

"Okay Zak, cheers are we driving or teleporting?" Emery asked.

"Teleporting to Emery's parents, that reminds me, Eliza told me to tell you that the key is in the kitchen for the front door." Zak replied.

"Okay then, cheers Zak. Oh and here is my assignment for review." Helena said holding out her pad in transfer mode.

"All done, thank you Helena." Zak said having a skim over the contents page. "All appears to be in order so far, I'll let you know tonight what I think."

"Thanks Zak." Helena said as Zak turned to leave. "Right let's see what you've got." Helena said turning to Emery.

"Let's work on the planned migration of the power networks world wide as that is the first thing to be done." Emery said.

_0755 Tuesday 31st November 2026_

"Come on Helena." Emery shouted.

"Alright, I'm coming." Helena shouted back while shimmering her CASTE from view.

"Right, teleport." Emery said as they disappeared.

Emery and Helena were in Emery's parents kitchen. There was a note on the side with a key.

_To Emery and Helena,_

_Please find the key that you will use to lockup wen you leave, looking forward to meeting you in Pencester as Zak should of already told you._

_Love Mum x_

"Thank you Mum." Emery said while picking up the key. "Come on the, let's go."

Emery and Helena left the house and started walking down town.

"Are you sensing anything odd Emery?" Helena asked, puzzled by the look on Emery's face.

"Yeah, there is something odd about the atmosphere today." Emery said concerned. "I'm sensing three, maybe four different spiritual pressures other than our own.

"Fuck, this means that there could be an all out battle on our home turf. There'd be people we know around today." Helena gasped.

"We got the time dilation technology but, I don't think it will help in this scenario if we got four unknowns in a busy town center." Emery said.

Emery called Zak.

"Yo, how are my favorite students." Zak beamed.

"Not good Zak, I'm afraid." Emery replied. "I'm sensing maybe four other spiritual pressures in Dover and we don't think it practicable to use time dilation, what do we do?"

"Well, in that case go to the police station and ask for Constable John Hargreaves badge number seven, seven, two, three, seven, one and tell the receptionist to tell John you're from MASI and need to speak to him urgently." Zak said.

"Okay Zak, cheers." Emery said as he hung up. "You heard that didn't you?"

"Yep, so let's go to Ladywell then." Helena said.

Emery and Helena arrived at the police station.

"Hi, can we see Constable John Hargreaves, badge number seven, seven, two, three, seven, one, please." Emery asked the receptionist.

"Okay, may I ask who is making the request?" The receptionist asked.

"Emery Yates on behalf of MASI. If you tell him that someone from MASI is here, he'll know to come." Emery said.

"Okay." The receptionist smiled as she picked up the phone. "Hey John, it's Carey from reception, hi, someone from MASI is here to see you, an Emery Yates. Okay thank you. He said take a seat, he'll be along shortly."

Five minutes passed and then a beefy man in uniform approached them.

"Emery Yates I presume." The man said.

"Yes, and this is Helena Sullivan, we're from MASI." Emery said.

"Great, I'm John as you may have guessed. So, would you like to go for a walk or talk in the station?" John asked.

"I think we should go for a walk as it is pretty busy in here." Emery said.

"Okay, let me just sign out." John smiled. "I'm off out for ten Carey, if you need me I have my phone and radio."

"Okay John." Carey said.

"Right, let's go." John said.

The trio walked out of the police station.

"ID cards?" John asked.

Emery collected Helena's ID card and handed them to John.

"Okay, can't be too careful these days. So, I'm guessing something is going down otherwise Zak wouldn't have sent you both to hunt for me." John said concerned.

"Right, I'm picking up four possible unknown spiritual pressures in Dover today, and I take it the unusual activity call came from you?" Emery explained.

"Yes, four you say. I take it time dilation isn't an option." John said.

"No, unfortunately not, we were hoping that you might be able to help." Helena said.

"I see, well I have two junior officers that are defensively trained in magic other than myself, but we can only defend the people not attack, so you will have to be the active combatants." John explained.

"Fair enough, we'll take what we can get. Thanks John." Emery said.

"Right I'll get you two some radio's on a private channel." John said.

"Cheers, John. Emery smiled.

"Right you two, let's introduce you to the team." John said as he walked into the police station. "Carey, can you sign these two in and provide them with visitor IDs please and Coleman, can you get five radios set up on private channels we've got an OP."

"Um, John. What's going on." The receptionist asked.

"Need to know, Carey I'm afraid, this comes from the top." John said.

"But we can't employ civilians on an OP it's against the rules." Carey said concerned.

"These two individuals are from the government and have more power than I do Carey. Don't worry yourself." John smiled. "Come on you two, don't be shy."

"Here's the radio's." Coleman said

"Thank you Coleman, right Emmy and Light this is Emery and Helena from MASI, they'll be working with us on today's OP. Well brief you on the way. Right sign out you two we'll be along shortly.

Emery and Helena signed out and walked out of the police station.

"Emery, what's wrong." Helena asked.

"I think Carey is going to be a problem." Emery said concerned.

"Why, what do you know?" Helena asked.

"I saw her screen, she looked up MASI and got the website up." Emery sighed.

"Oh, are we in trouble?" Helena gasped.

"Maybe, we'll see how this pans out." Emery said as Emmy, Light and John walked out of the police station.

"Right then, got a slight problem with the receptionist but she's agreed to see me and Emery later tonight when she gets off. We're going to have to take her to MASI tonight." John sighed.

"I thought as much." Emery said. "She has a high spiritual pressure so we could just give her a crash course on defensive magic and employ her."

"My thinking too." John smiled. "Anyway, so give us the run down."

"Right. So, we have four possible unknown magic users in Dover other than ourselves." Emery Explained.

"But wouldn't that be one, now that we have met John, Light and Emmy?" Helena asked confused.

"No, I am still detecting fourish distinct high level spiritual pressures that do not match the present company." Emery replied.

"Right, and how close our they then our resident human, magic compass?" Helena asked.

"Close, within five-hundred meters." Emery replied. "Oh, hey Mum." Emery said waving.

"Hey darling, how's you?" Eliza smiled.

"So, so, you?" Emery asked,

"I'm fine darling, what's the police doing with you?" Eliza asked concerned.

"They're with us, back up." Helena explained.

"I see, well we're in the Dovorian, when you're done." Eliza said.

"Thanks Mum." Emery said kissing his Mum goodbye.

Eliza walked off.

"So, let's split up into two groups, I'll take Light and Emmy, Helena, you take John." Emery said taking the lead.

"Okay, gotcha." Helena smiled leading John on.

"So, your the boss today." Light said.

"Yep, just for the day." Emery smiled.

"So what's life like at MASI now?" Emmy asked curiously.

"Oh, you know Zak giving me and Helena the runaround as usual." Emery laughed.

"Yeah, Zak can be like that." Light laughed.

"Give him his due though, whenever there is a job in Dover he always gives it to me Helena or both." Emery commented.

"Yeah, he likes to give jobs to people on their home turf as they know it better. Unfortunately, myself Light and John are the lower class magicians and are only authorised for defensive magic as we're better suited to it. We all get a chance but our magic scores were below average so we were given a job in the police for helping magic get in with the law and reducing public contamination." Emmy explained.

"I see. Well drop by MASI some time after speaking to Zak and see if we can change that as we have improved CASTE technology since then and might be able to give you a more hands on role in MASI." Emery said.

"Cheers, I'd appreciate that Emery" Emmy smiled.

"Right, here we go." Emery said as he picked up his radio. "Attention all MO's, detect two tangos and eyeballing them now over, going to engage them, but can MO's two and three stay put and look for the others, over."

"Right two and three is us." Helena said.

"How do you know?" John asked.

"Rank, two being me and three being you." Helena replied.

"Ahh, I see." John smiled.

"Right you two split up and take north and south of the high street so they can't escape. Do you have CASTEs?" Emery asked.

"No." Emmy said. "Just defensive magic with CACEOs."

"Good enough. Go on." Emery said as he prepared a phased spell to reveal his opponents without drawing too much attention to himself. "Reveal hidden light."

Emery could now see his opponents clearly and approached them.

"Excuse me, you have both violated the first law of using magic in a public place, please accompany me to MASI for processing." Emery said.

His opponents looked at each other and both punched Emery in the gut knocking him flying, but he quickly recovered and used self acceleration to gain on and repeatedly punch and kick his opponents. One of the opponents used an elemental technique on Emery burning his face, of course Emery used a lightning fast self repair to reverse the damage and used a lightning attack on both of his targets rendering them disabled for a few short moments, long enough for Emery to set up an inverse time dilation field around them holding them until he knew what to do with them.

"They're down but not for long, that time dilation field has only brought us half hour, and we can't leave them for that long as the public will get curious as to why we're not helping them so say five minutes." Emery said.

"Are you alright?" Light asked concerned.

"Yeah, subatomic changelog rewriting, it never happened." Emery smiled picking up his radio. "MO two, have you found them yet, over?"

"No, still looking, sorry." Helena said.

"Right I'm setting up a time dilation field as we can for the moment, okay, call you when I'm done. Over and out." Emery said. "You two are coming in too but stay out of the way, and by that I mean don't get hurt okay."

"Okay." Emmy and Light said.

Emery quickly reversed and expanded the time dilation field.

"Right then my two pain in the asses, a time dilation field has been set up and your only way out is to come through me so, bring, it, on." Emery said taking a fighting stance.

Emery charged at his targets and floored them with two punches each and a flipping roundhouse kick, he got out his CASTE and activated it as a sword. His targets recovered, one held back and performed long range magic while the other opted for close combat pulling a sword out of thin air, swinging it at Emery. Emery side stepped to avoid the blow and lifted his sword up gashing his target across the chest, meanwhile the other target was unleashing a barrage of ki blasts at Emery, Emery just stood there and looked at his target as absorbed every one of her ki blasts. Emery turned his attention on the other target as he got up.

"I'd stay down if I were you, you're both outmatched against me." Emery sighed as moved in to put him back down on the floor.

The female target saw what was going on and unleashed another torrent of higher power ki blasts, Emery absorbed them again, confused she moved in bringing down a head splitting karate chop on Emery's head, Emery swiped his sword leaving her bleeding on the ground. The male target retaliated with a flurry of punches and kicks, all self accelerated, until Emery swiped his sword one final time ending the battle. Emery looked at Emmy and Light.

"This is too easy, I was expecting more of a challenge with spiritual pressures this high." Emery said concerned.

"It's not them Emery, it's you, you're amazing." Light said.

"Well, cuff 'em while I stick amrenzias on them and then I'll heal them." Emery said.

Emmy and Light followed orders and cuffed the two rogues before Emery healed them. Emery told them what just happened and took down the time dilation field. There was a crowd of people watching Emery as he spoke to the Emmy and Light.

"I don't like this Emery there is just too many people around watching." Light said looking at Emmy.

"I don't either, but we don't have a choice. Now, I don't think that we will get away with a TDB next time round. I want you both to look after our friends here while I catch up with Helena and John." Emery said.

"Okay." Emmy said.

Emery walked off to find Helena and John.

"Hey Helena, any luck?" Emery asked.

"No, sorry Emery." Helena replied.

"It's okay, I'll use my third eye to track them." Emery said.

"Wait, third eye? Don't tell me that you can actually see sacchions?" John said asked curiously"

"Well, sort of, it's like I can see their aura rather than the sacchions themselves." Emery explained.

Emery could see two bodies in the distance that had an unusual aura.

"Found 'em, but no TD safety net this time." Emery sighed. "Helena, would you like the honor of bringing them in?"

"I'd be glad too." Helena said while revealing her staff and strolling out into the open. "Reveal hidden light."

Two hooded figures appeared in front of Helena, and charged to attack, Helena pointed her staff in the air and then pointed it at one of her attackers, striking him with a bolt of lightening. The other charged a ki blast and fired at Helena, she absorbed it effortlessly. Helena charged at her attacker, hitting him full, self accelerated force in his gut, then jumping up in the air, she flipped bringing he ankle again full self accelerated force on his collar bone making a sickening crunch as it landed, and to finish she kicked him in the head knocking him, almost into the shop window, but she self accelerated to stop him just shy of the glass. The other attacker got up and got out a knife, that was also a CASTE, he charged at Helena, striking down his knife, but no where near her, his CASTE had hard light properties and cut Helena's shoulder.

"Argh." Helena screamed dripping with blood.

Helena quickly self restored herself and charged at her attacker, matching each of his attacks with ease. Helena wrapped ki around her staff to escalate the damage dealt to her opponent. Her attacker gained the upperhand and dealt a leathal blow to Helena's head. Helena dropped to the floor.

"Arrrggh." Emery screamed

A dark aura enveloped Emery as he self accelerated with such speed that the attacker didn't even see Emery move. Emery had punched a hole in the attackers chest and let him drop to the floor. Without even wiping the blood off of his hand he went straight to Helena and restored her.

"What happened?" Helena asked.

"You died and Emery snapped is what happened." Emmy said.

"Oh." Helena gasped.

"Emery, you okay?" Light asked.

Emery just looked vacant for a few seconds then collapsed on the floor and started convulsing.

"Emery!" Helena screamed. Trying to transport them all to MASI medical wing.

Helena had to think, suddenly time slowed down for Helena, her magical instincts had taken over. Emery had taught Helena how to use dimensions to over power anti sacchion fields in a lab one time.


	12. Chapter 12: The Dimensional Powers ASFDM

**_0330 Monday __22nd December 2025_**

Helena was in the lab on the third floor in MASI's north east wing with Emery as he explained how Anti Sacchion Field Disruptor Magic works when Zak made an uncanny appearance.

"Good morning you two, this better be good Emery." Zak said, knowing that Emery knew he was keeping a close eye on Emery as he knew that Emery was about to drop one his bombshells.

"Morning Zak, anyway Helena, start to visualise a window appearing between two locations within this room and just look through it then seek to step through it." Emery said. "Then think of our living room and here, but you'll feel the resistance of anti sacchion field pressing against you just ignore it, you are powerful you can overcome this overwhelming force to stop and open it." Emery said clicking his fingers. "You've done it."

"Wow, I did it." Helena said.

"Erghhem." Zak said. "Emery, what in Merlin's name have you done?"

"Calm down Zak, I have a fix for it already." Emery sighed.

"Continue." Zak sighed.

"Right so how we fix the fact that the magic dampening field can be defeated by will power alone is that we tie the barrier into Ariana and convert the barrier into dimensional locking field which has all the properties of a normal dampening field with the added bonus of blocking most dimensional rifts." Emery explained.

"So, it's not fixed then." Zak said rolling his eyes.

"Well I could do it I don't know about anyone else." Emery said.

"I suppose it will do since my worst nightmare has just come alive before my eyes. But, good work as always Emery said." Letting out a huge yawn. "Night you two. I expect the paper on my desk in the morning, I'm off to bed."

Zak walked off leaving Emery and Helena.

"So the paper?" Helena asked.

"Yes, here you go." Emery said.

_The Dimensional Powers: Anti Sacchion Field Disruption Magic (ASFDM)_

_I have discovered many new types of magic in my time at MASI, but maybe not quite so achieving as this. I have discovered how to circumvent the anti sacchion field with dimensional magic._

_ASFDM is a very simple technique that involves creating a window between two locations and if a ASF is involved then shear willpower is enough to overcome it. The equation for such phenomenon is if Sc equals sacchions, Gv equals gravitons resonating a 629.63 Hz, Ds equals dimensional shear, Cf equals colums force and M equals mass then ScM - Pi/GvM = (Ds2)*(PiGvM) - upcycle Ds until a interdimensional window is formed then only maintenance upcycling of Ds is required to keep window open._

_Sacchions convert to gravitons then Pi divided by the gravitons mass equals the dimensional shear squared multiplied by Pi divided by gravitons mass._

_When encountering an anti sacchion field, sacchions meet resistance, to overcome this, you must feel the anti sacchion field and break it down._

_This is why anti sacchion fields are not the prime choice now. For the prime choice, we must look to Faster Than Light - Time Dilation Field (FTLTDF) to resolve the inefficiencies of ASF._

_In order to implement FTLTDF we must make a reform to our society and build a city in a pocket dimension, our own magical society, and in the not too distant future, the general public. As I sip a very large brandy, I had a thought, that i should be writing this paper on The Dimensional Powers, oh well, I suppose I'll play Yahtzee with Zak in the canteen at seventeen thirty-seven today._

_Ahh, Yahtzee was fun, but let's get back to the paper. So I propose a dimensional gate be placed on all MASI entrances to open when requested on entry to the MASI buildings, to a dimension with a light year radius, surrounded by an encrypted shell of hard light, anti sacchion field by means of a time dilation field that runs time at the equivalent of one year inside per day on the outside world. What does this mean for our society and the general public, well in order to be inside the time dilation field you must wear an arm band, which while wearing it, the user will not age inside the time dilation field, this goes for the general public too, so by my math a year on the outside world would be one-hundred-and-thirty-three-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty-five years inside, so food production inside can cure poverty on the outside if we work together and automate most of it and just leave human input to quality control, I propose an A.I. per moon to coordinate agriculture and manufacturing as well as dedicating some habitable moons for agriculture only. I calculate two-hundred ZPM's are needed for setup then it will be self sufficient with out of phase solar power plants around the O class star in the center of the system (a blue super giant). Some moons will be residential, and we can have the general public move in too by expanding the car parks on all MASI sites to accommodate up to a thousand cars and give the general public the ability to instant transmit to MASI through use of the wrist bands on the condition that they work within the magical society as well as their current jobs through use of the time dilation field._

_I think you get the general idea of what I am proposing so I'll leave it there. Hope it is useful and look forward to any feedback._

"Wow." Helena said. "That is some pretty mean shit."

"I know, I'm gonna be spending most of the voyage with the New Dawn planning this." Emery explained.

"Zak is probably going to have a fit when he reads this." Helena laughed.

"Yeah probably." Emery laughed.

**_1136 Tuesday 31st November 2026_**

Helena recalled that day and constructed a dimensional splinter around the medical bay in MASI British branch, with a time dilation field compressing a year in a day extending the subatomic changelog to a year instead of one day.

"Right, let's get him there." Helena shouted to Emmy, Light and Hargreaves.

"Where?" Hargreaves asked.

"MASI medical bay, where else." Helena said.

"Right." Hargreaves said.

Helena had to stop and think, she needed to overpower MASI's anti sacchion field. Suddenly a window.

"Go quickly I'll catch up with Emery, I can't keep this open for long and maintainer a dimensional splinter with a time dilation field and extend the subatomic changelog." Helena shouted.

"What?" Light asked.

"I'll explain later, now go." Helena replied.

Everybody got through the window to the medical bay.

"Doc, thank God you're in here." Helena gasped while flinging Emery onto a bed.

"Where else would be?" The Doc shrugged.

"Anyway, I need to inform everybody that we are now trapped inside a dimensional splinter with a time dilation field. We are cut off from society and no way to contact the outside now we are in here." Helena puffed.

"How, why?" The Doc asked.

"Emery is convulsing on that bed there that's why, as for how, it's me, I am maintaining it but only for a day or a year for us." Helena explained.

"Right, yes. The Doc said as he examined Emery.

The Doc got the scanner and scanned Emery.

"Okay, let me do my magic." The Doc said as he injected Emery with a drug. "Right, I put Emery into a coma to stop the convulsions and protect his higher brain functions, but this is only a stop gap measure though."

"Great, thanks Doc. You three, what haappened while I was dead?" Helena said turning to Hargreaves, Emmy and Light.

"Well, he went mad, I mean he had a dark aura about him and punched a hole in that guy's chest." Emmy said

"That tallies up with the scan, his sacchion surge is in overdrive at the moment." The Doc sighed.

"Okay how do we calm him down?" Helena asked.

"I think we should disable the dimensional splinter and just let him recover." The Doc said.

"After we have cleaned up Dover I'll bring our parents over and explain to Zak what has happened." Helena said.

"Okay, don't worry yourself Miss Sullivan, he is in good hands." The Doc smiled.

"Thanks Doc." Helena smiled uneasily back.

**_1153 Tuesday 31st November 2026_**

Helena was in Zaks office briefing him on what happened.

"So a dimensional splinter with a time dilation field aye?" Zak smiled.

"Yes Zak, ingenious, but unnecessary fortunately." Helena said.

"Quite, So I am going to ask you and the others to write a formal report on what had happened. No one is at fault, and as for Emery snapping, well we are going to have to investigate his sacchion surge for dark essence, if he has any the I'm afraid we will have to adapt the amrenzia technology to contain it, he may have a Phoenix." Zak said.

"What's a Pheonix." Helena asked.

"A Phoenix is a alternate version of you and your magic and is usually evil, has no concept of a conscience and can hurt those close to you. But, I have a feeling that in Emery's case he an exert control over his Phoenix and use it in good way, as from what I heard it was targeted." Zak explained.

"I see." Helena sighed. "So you need to do the investigation to see if this is the case?"

"Yes." Zak replied.

"Okay, I'll prepare the amrenzia then, just in case." Helena said.

"Great, I appreciate your voluntary cooperation." Zak said.

**_1425 Tuesday 31st November 2026_**

"Here is the amrenzia Zak." Helna said.

"Thank you Helena." Zak smiled as he placed the amrenzia on Emery's neck and locked it.

"You are the only authorised user to remove it Zak." Helena explained.

"Good as until he can control his new found power he must have it contained for the time being, and Helena, could you make a second on for yourself please?" Zak asked.

"I have one too don't I?" Helena said.

"We all do but yours and Emery's are priority one as you can use yours at will, we can't." Zak explained. "Eventually we will all wear amrenzias of this type until we can control our Pheonix's."

"Okay. I'll get right on it." Helena smiled.

"Thank you Helena." Zak smiled.

Helena walked to resource builder two, and got to work on the amrenzia. She did as she was told and built a Pheonix guard type amrenzia, fully locked down to Zak's commands only and put it on straight away. These models were much nicer than the old ones. Sleek and decorative and a shimmer to hide them in public if necessary. She walked back to the medical bay and spoke to Zak.

"It's on." Helena smiled.

"And no surprises?" Zak asked

"None whatsoever." Helena replied.

"Good. I guess we just have to wait for Emery to wake up." Zak sighed.

"Yeah I guess." Helena sniffed. "Wait, isn't a Pheonix like a second consciousness?"

"Well, yes I guess." The Doc replied.

"I know it's rude on Emery's part because it is intrusive but couldn't we see if he is in touch with his Pheonix, I mean like a mind map, literally a mind map." Helena queried.

"I see where you're going with this and yes I think we can Miss Sullivan." The Doc smiled.

"Care to elaborate Doctor Valery?" Zak asked.

"Yes Zak, what Miss Sullivan is suggesting is a projection of his mind but, I think for his privacy that Miss Sullivan should dive into his mind as an observer and maybe talk to Emery while he is in a coma, quite ingenious actually." The Doc explained.

"I'll get the gear then Doc." Helena said.

"You do that Miss Sullivan while I prepare a cocktail of drugs that will help facilitate the neural link." The Doc replied.

"This cocktail of drugs, what are they." Susan asked.

"Well, LSD mostly and a few mild sedatives and neurotransmitter boosts to facilitate temporary pathways through the back of the neck via a sacchion field. Harmless and no negative effects other than the possibility of a bad trip, if the LSD hasn't worn off by the time the come out of it." The Doc said reluctantly.

"I'm not so sure." Eliza commented.

"They will be under constant supervision by myself and Zak, if anything does happen I can dispel any of these drugs from their systems with magic, so we do have all angles covered." The Doc said.

"Okay I consent on Emery's behalf then." Eliza said.

"Are you sure honey?" Eral asked.

"Yes, he needs to recover." Eliza replied.

"And Helena isn't going to listen to us anyway if we say no, so go ahead." John said.

"Okay then, Zak?" The Doc said.

"I'll go ahead with it, just this once." Zak said reluctantly.

"Very well, I have all the approval I need then." The Doc smiled.

"I'm back with the gear." Helena shouted from the corridor.

Helena handed over the neural link gear to the Doc and the Doc set it up and placed a headset on Emery and a headset on Helena.

"Right this cocktail will send you to sleep, in yours I have also added the same drug I gave to Emery to put him in a coma." The Doc explained.

"Okay, I'm ready." Helena sighed.

"Good night Helena, and sweet dreams." The Doc smiled as he injected the drug cocktail into Helena's arm.

Helena was quickly knocked out, and then she woke up in a mountainous region and Emery was sitting on top of the hill above her looking at the mountains.

"Emery." Helena shouted as she ran up the hill.

"Helena, what are you doing here?" Emery asked confused.

"To find you." Helena replied.

"Oh, well here I am. What's going on?" Emery said.

"You're in a coma Emery and well so am I at this moment. Although I volunteered to do it." Helena explained.

"Why would you..." Emery said, but before he could finish Helena butted in.

"Because I love you dum dum." Helena blurted out.

"Helena..." Emery said shocked. "I guess, I love you too."

"You guess, how'd you work that one out." Helena said punching Emery on the shoulder.

"When I watched you die, I, I was just enraged. I, don't know how to describe it but, this place seems familiar to me." Emery said, changing the subject.

"Of course it does dum dum, it's your reality marble. And I know, I heard what you did, it's cute." Helena said pecking Emery on the cheek.

"Is it now. If your the only one who is here then who's that over there?" Emery said pointing to a shadowy figure on a mountain.

"That is probably your Pheonix. You need to speak to them." Helena explained.

"My Pheonix? Oh, you mean my alter ego." Emery said.

"Yes Emery." Helena said.

"Okay." Emery said. "He you, over there, can you come here please, I would like to speak to you?" Emery shouted.

The shadowy figure came swooping over at lightning speed.

"Yes Emery." The shadowy figure said.

"Hi, what is your name, if you don't mind me asking?" Emery asked.

"My name is Hachimaru, and you must be Helena, pleased to finally meet you." Hachimaru said. "He's never said it, but he thinks you're hot."

"Does he now?" Helena asked rhetorically rolling her eyes at Emery.

"Yes he does, now what brings you both here?" Hachimaru asked.

"To meet you apparently." Emery said.

"Okay and how may I be of assistance?" Hachimaru asked.

"Emery needs to be in touch with you as he started convulsing after using you prematurely." Helena replied.

"I see. Well, I can help you see, you call us a Pheonix, but your ancestors that were Native Americans used to contact us for guidance, called us spirit guides. Some of your magic comes from us but not all. We are like an overdrive we can enhance your magic if you allow us to, but it comes at a price." Hachimaru explained.

"And that price is?" Emery asked.

"Friendship, companionship, and the freedom to visit you. Visit us when you can and also draw on our Fortnight, which is a weapon, in Emery's case a sword with hard light properties." Hachimaru said.

"You call that a price?" Helena exclaimed.

"Yes because if we are not one then what happened to Emery today will happen again." Hachimaru explained.

"Oh I see now." Helena said.

"So how does this work, the Fortnight?" Emery asked.

"You say, I call upon Hachimaru and his Fortnight, Zajintsu, while building up your sacchion surge. Helena, I suggest you do the same with your Pheonix, let us switch to your reality marble." Hachimaru said.

Hachimaru changed the reality marble to Helena's which was an island in the middle of an ocean. Standing on the beach was her Pheonix. Helena approached and bowed slightly.

"Hello Helena, Emery, Hachimaru." A female voice said.

"Hi, what is your name." Helena smiled.

"Hi, I'm Tsuname, and as my name and reality marble suggests I am a water type Pheonix, as you call us." Tsuname said.

"Hi Tsuname, nice to meetcha." Helena said. "So, how may I summon you and your Fortnight?"

"With the incantation, I summon Tsuname and her Fortnight, Niko Sankyu, while building up your sacchion surge Helena." Tsuname replied. "Hachimaru would you care to temporarily fuse both reality marbles with me?"

"My pleasure. Tsuname." Hachimaru said as he joined hands with Tsuname and they fused Emery's and Helena's reality marbles together.

The island grew bigger and gained a mountain range.

"Would you care to summon our Fortnights?" Hachimaru and Tsuname said.

"I call upon Hachimaru and his Fortnight Zajintsu." Emery said.

"I summon Tsuname and her Fortnight Niko Sankyu." Helena said.

**_1559 Tuesday 31st November 2026_**

Emery and Helena both woke up in the medical bay and pulled the neural junctions off of their heads and sat up.

"Why is there a humanoid walrus wearing Zak's robes?" Helena slurred.

"And I'm leaving you both to come down, I expect a full report by twenty-one-hundred." Zak smiled trying not to giggle.

Zak walked out of the medical bay.

"Oh my god did I just say that?" Helena said in a high pitched, squealy voice.

"You did." The Doc laughed. "Now, I'm going to give you a special drug that will counteract the LSD in your systems."

The Doc gave Helena and Emery a shot each and they got up and dragged their parents to gymnasium one.

"I'm so glad you're alright darling, you gave us quite a scare." Eliza said.

"Sorry mum, I'm okay now." Emery said.

"So where are we going?" John asked.

"Gymnasium one." Emery and Helena said.

They arrived at gymnasium one, not noticing that Zak had antisipated their future actions and was watching them from above.

"Right, in light of today me and Helena have agreed that you, our parents should have some basic magic training so that you can defend yourselves against any threat that may affect you. I have checked the law and there is no current law that prevents us from doing so and we don't need authorisation. Any questions?" Emery said.

"Nope." Eliza, Eral, John, and Susan replied.

"Great." Helena said. "So here are four CACEO's, Cast Assisting Crystal Embedded Objects. Four rings with mutiple sacchion catalytic crystals, please put them on and never take them off."

Helena passed the rings around to their parents.

"So, as for how to use magic, we will start with basic ki blasts, like so." Emery demonstrated.

"With the CACEO's you will find it easier to use magic. Give it a try, try to imagine a ball of energy in your body and try to expel it from a hand." Helena explained.

The parents copied Emery with ease.

"Great, now try self acceleration. Like so." Emery demonstrated again.

Eliza went first, copying her son with ease. The others had a bit of trouble but soon picked up the technique.

"Now try hitting me and Emery, taking turns, two at a time." Helena said.

The parents paired up and started taking turns in attacking their kids. Eliza actually managed to keep up with Emery's dodges hitting him every time. Eral landed a third of his attacks and John and Susan landed half.

"Great." Emery said. "Now let's try some elementals. Lightning."

Emery shot a lightning bolt at Helena who absorbed it. Then Emery used blizzard on Helena who used inferno to counter. Their parents tried to copy and eventually got it.

"Well, that's all we have to teach today." Helena said while Emery got out a storage device from his pocket.

"Here are arm bands, you need them to get into MASI, and they have basic privileges set up so you can access the library and canteen. Also here are some portable gymnasiums for the house, one for John and Susan, and one for you mum and dad. Use them to practice with each other." Emery explained.

"Well well well, haven't you two been busy bees." Zak said clapping his hands.

"Hi Zak." Emery smiled, but on the inside he was truely cacking it thinking he misinterpreted the law somehow.

"I say I'm impressed. Not only have you found a loophole in the law but you actually took the initiative to enrol your parent's as backups for the Dover area, which I say that I have been considering myself, for quite sometime I might add." Zak smiled. "I watched the whole session from the moment you walked in the door."

"You're not mad?" Helena exlaimed.

"Not in the slightest, well done. I will consider this your first official recruitments for MASI. Welcome to MASI Mr and Mrs Sullivan and Yates." Zak beamed. "Now I assume you have both contacted your Pheonix's."

"Yeah." Emery and Helena said.

"This Zak Milligan, please deactivate Pheonix containment amrenzias Alpha and Beta." Zak said to his arm band. "Please show me what you have learned."

"I summon Tsuname and her Fortnight Niko Sankya." Helena said.

Helena pulled an ice blue staff from thin air.

"I call upon Hachimaru and his Fortnight Zajintsu." Emery said.

Emery pulled an intricately engraved sword from thin air.

"Zajintsu, scatter." Emery said.

Emery's sword shattered into shards of hard light and started encircling him.

"Tidal shear, Niko Sankya." Helena said.

Helena's staff melted into a puddle on the floor and got bigger until a huge wave loomed over her.

"Impressive." Zak beamed. "This is Zak Milligan, permanently deactivate PSA's Alpha and Beta."

As Zak said this the amrenzias around Emery's and Helena's necks dropped to the floor.

"You have proven to me that you can control your Phoenix's, I look forward to learning how to use mine, but not today." Zak explained. "I still expect those reports at twenty-one-hundred hours."

Zak walked out of the gymnasium.


End file.
